A Brexit gift horse for Remainer Keir!

NO ONE can pretend they didn't see it coming. Even before he was elected last year Donald Trump revealed that "tariff is one of my favourite words". And last week he backed that up, with his performance in the Rose Garden putting thorns in the side of virtually every country on the planet.

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The gravity of President Trump's imposition of tariffs can be shown by looking briefly at the figures involved in our trade with the US.

In 2023 we sold exports worth £187billion into America, approaching a quarter of our entire total and significantly more trade than we do with the whole of Asia.

In return, the UK spent £115billion on products from the US, which in turn makes it a £300billion business, roughly the entire GDP of Pakistan.

While this fiscal crisis the widest raft of protectionist measures seen in more than 80 years was not of our making, what happens next is solely down to this government.

Make no mistake, if they get it wrong then recession seems inevitable, along with major job losses and a hike in taxes at the budget later this year.