At a press briefing on Thursday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was asked about flat tariffs on the UK.
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00:00Um, Beth.
00:04Back in February when you did a press conference with Donald Trump in the White House and said
00:10we could end up with a real trade deal where tariffs wouldn't be necessary.
00:15Those were Donald Trump's words.
00:18And you've come out and yes, you have a concession on cars.
00:22You have a flat carrot still of 10%.
00:26Are you disappointed with that?
00:28Is this just the start?
00:30And to those voters last week in the local elections that gave you the worst ever vote share you've
00:36had in a set of elections as a Labour Party, what's your message today?
00:42Well, my message today, um, is, um, that we absolutely get the message that they sent
00:50last Thursday.
00:52Um, we will remain, as of all, the national interest.
00:56And I have them in mind.
00:58I have the workforce here in mind.
01:00When we make this, I don't make them from my station.
01:04I make them on behalf of running people across this country.
01:08And in relation to this deal, yes, uh, we would like to go further in relation to tariffs.
01:14But I think it's really important to be able to get this deal over the line now.
01:20Because, um, in that way, we'd be able to protect and save, um, an enhanced vote right here, right now.
01:28And that reduction of 27,5% down to 10%.
01:32That's a huge difference to firms like JLR and the decisions they have to make about the future.
01:38Um, decisions that I want them to make about the future.
01:41Still an anomaly have obviously been introduced hugely, um, in recent, um, weeks.
01:46To get that down to 4% as well is hugely important.
01:49Pharmaceuticals is one of the most important centres in our economy.
01:53And therefore, uh, there's nothing to get down at the moment because there is a potential critic.
01:58There should be.
01:59Which already have got into a position of significantly preferential outcomes.
02:04Will I know be a welcome relief, uh, to them.
02:07So, I measure this, um, by the reactions of those that are most affected by the tariffs.
02:15Which is the workforce here.
02:16To those who can answer to the people who are working on the scale of the year.
02:20Um, but, look, there's a huge ambition here.
02:22Um, there's a lot in the deal about tech.
02:25Uh, we are two of the leading authorities on tech.
02:28There's a huge amount we can do on tech as well.
02:31So, we want to go further.
02:33We want to go further, um, in those areas and, um, on tariffs.
02:38Um, keeping our red lines, um, absolutely in place on SPS and on food standards.
02:45And on food standards.
02:46Because that matters so much to us here.
02:50Um, thank you.
02:51Thank you very much.
02:55Thank you so much.
02:57I'm going to go ahead.
03:01rupal.