Ed Davey had a right go at Donald Trump’s latest antics in the House of Commons this week.
In an email to party members and supporters, he said that Keir Starmer must do more to stand up to Trump’s antics:
President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on the UK for supporting the territorial integrity of an ally is a grave threat to our economy, our livelihoods, and our national security.
By demanding control of Greenland and threatening economic warfare on allies who support its sovereignty, Trump risks ending NATO which has kept us safe for 75 years. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will be cheering him on.
Now is not the time to roll over.
For a year now, the Prime Minister has tried a policy of appeasing Trump, flattering him with a lavish state visit and refusing to stand up to him no matter how much his actions went against our national interests.
It was all in the name of protecting us from damaging tariffs. Clearly, that approach has been proved wrong.
Trump is a bully, behaving like an international gangster. The only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to them.
That’s why the government must work with our European partners to make Trump back down from his reckless plans. That must include preparing retaliatory measures which would hit Trump and his cronies where it hurts, and to follow through on these unless he drops his tariff threat.
It’s time to show that Britain stands with our allies and we won’t be bullied into submission.
For the sake of our national security and the future of the liberal, rules-based international order, we must stand up to Trump.
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22 Comments
I can’t get any sound on this ED video
It’s fine Ed speaking from a gilded position in opposition on a taxpayer funded salary of £90k+…We export close to £200 billion worth of goods to the US – our biggest customer in regards to a single country. Thousands and thousands of people’s livelyhoods depend on that market – most of whom don’t have the luxury of a MPs renumeration…
Trump obviously couldn’t care less about reciprocal action which would only bring in further retaliatory measures …Without the US NATO is a busted flush. Decades of diplomatic normalities have been blown apart, only US politicians can stop this mafioso style adminstration…One has to say ,sadly, that Bidens disastrous decision to open the southern border delivered Trumps infinitely worse 2nd term
There 2 things that the UK and NATO need to do.
1. The UK must follow Canada’s lead and seek other markets to replace the USA
2. NATO must move to detach itself from the USA so that it can stand on its own and, yes, that will need lots of cash and bucket loads of political determination.
Alas, I fear our Labour government has neither the wit or the willingness to do what is right.
The last thing we need is apologists like Greg Hyde
It’s that simple Mick is it £200 billion a year – let’s look at other markets….!
It’s not being apologist it’s being based in reality..
Well said, Ed: ‘Trump is a bully, behaving like an international gangster. The only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to them’.
As Chair of his Gaza phase 2 executive, which has nothing to do with Gaza, he is inviting counties to join for $1 billion. Whose pocket is it going into?
Which of his rich friends recommended him to take over Greenland? One day during his first term, Donald Trump summoned a top aide to discuss a new idea. “Trump called me down to the Oval Office,” John Bolton, national security adviser in 2018, told the Guardian. “He said a prominent businessman had just suggested the US buy Greenland.”
It was an extraordinary proposal. And it originated from a longtime friend of the president who would go on to acquire business interests in the Danish territory.
The businessman, Bolton learned, was Ronald Lauder. Heir to a makeup fortune – the global cosmetics brand Estée Lauder – he had known Trump, a fellow wealthy New Yorker, for more than 60 years.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/15/ronald-lauder-billionaire-donor-donald-trump-ukraine-greenland
Well said, Ed: ‘In your excellent article in the Guardian you wrote: ‘We are dealing with the most reprehensible US president in history. The only way to make him back down is to hit him and his cronies where it hurts: in the pocket.’ IN THE POCKET!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/21/appeasement-britain-donald-trump-trade-tariffs
Which of his rich friends recommended him to take over Greenland? One day during his first term, Donald Trump summoned a top aide to discuss a new idea. “Trump called me down to the Oval Office,” John Bolton, national security adviser in 2018, told the Guardian. “He said a prominent businessman had just suggested the US buy Greenland.”
It was an extraordinary proposal. And it originated from a longtime friend of the president who would go on to acquire business interests in the Danish territory.
The businessman, Bolton learned, was Ronald Lauder. Heir to a makeup fortune – the global cosmetics brand Estée Lauder – he had known Trump, a fellow wealthy New Yorker, for more than 60 years.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/15/ronald-lauder-billionaire-donor-donald-trump-ukraine-greenland
@Greg Hyde
“Bidens (sic) disastrous decision to open the southern border”
This is a thing that never happened.
@Greg Hyde: The “reality” is that the US under Trump is an unreliable trading partner. Any deal with Trump isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, because he’ll renege on it anytime on a whim. We have to find other trading partners who do not use tariffs as a weapon.
Three cheers for Mark Carney, “JUST IN: Carney’s EXPLOSIVE Anti-Trump Speech Gets Standing Ovation in Switzerland” – Canada Today.
@ Greg Hyde I’ve been as critical as anybody of the leadership style of Ed Davey, but I’m afraid you’ve lost me when you indulge in language about ‘a gilded position’. Are you planning to revert to the Victorian days when only the rich and powerful could afford to be members of parliament ? That was changed in 1911. Sir Ed spoke for me…… and bullies should never be indulged….. as I hope Trump learns this week.
@ Greg Hyde BBC News “Donald Trump is dropping plans to add a 10% tariff to goods from eight European countries over their opposition to his push to acquire Greenland”.
So, the bully’s bluff has been called despite your wobbles.
It seems that President Trump’s change of mind over taking ownership of Greenland and penalising Europe with more tariffs was brought about by a number of factors, not only the strong stance of European leaders. I thought Sir Keir’s answer to Sir Ed at PMQs was robust and pointed, recalling how much is at stake, not least for Ukraine. There has been quiet diplomacy, useful dialogue between the NAT0 chief and Trump, protests from American business heads and other Republicans, much going on behind the headlines. I was particularly struck by comments on Newsnight from a former security chief and others, to the effect that whatever is being shouted angrily in public, President Trump likes strong face-to-face private disagreement and argument.
@greg hyde – it may be, but it’s still the case that over 50% of our exports go to the EU and there is scope for that to be increased (single market, anyone?) Similar to Carney, Starmer is also due to visit China this year and I’d expect Xi to offer some sort of carrot in terms of trade too. And, of course, as any business will tell you it’s important not to have too many of your eggs in the same trading basket.
The problem with Trump is that his policy and rants are based on who he spoke to last. Despite what he said at Davos, it would come as no surprise to anyone if he was to get off Air Force 1 on his return to the US and immediately reimpose tariffs and order troops to Greenland, after spending hours speaking to Stephen Miller. Other world leaders simply can’t trust him at all, which is why alternatives have to be considered.
I strongly agree with @Keith Legg. There seems to be a tendency to think that if we can just make it past *this* Trump-induced psychodrama, then it will all be over and things we go back to normal. They won’t as long as Trump is President, and probably under whoever replaces him.
Meanwhile, perhaps more than any other European nation, we have developed a heavy dependence on the US for a wide range of defence equipment and capability. But even worse than that, we are now almost entirely dependent on US Tech companies who provide the cloud servers where most of our data is stored, and the software we use to access it, and now our Government seems to be all-in on US-controlled AI services too. All of this is subject to the Cloud Act which means that the US Government can demand access to data even if the servers are located in the UK or Europe.
The EU is aware of this and is making efforts to develop local alternatives for software and cloud storage, and France has always resisted such dependence for military capability. Yet Starmer refuses to even acknowledge this weakness, never mind do anything about it (and yes, it would take time and cost a lot of money).
It seems bizarre that a country that left the EU because “sovereignty” should allow itself to become almost entirely dependent on the goodwill of another country just to allow us to defend ourselves or even simply operate our Government and businesses.
David Raw has rightly referenced Mark Carney’s speech at Davos. Every liberal and Liberal Democrat should read it if they haven’t already done so. Here it is:
https://paulwells.substack.com/p/the-carney-doctrine
I think what underlies Greg Hyde’s concerned is the UK’ dependency on the US. We have to move away of course by extracting ourselves when Trump’s US is in a position to punish the UK for doing so is a tricky task.
Farage (and possibly the Tories – we will have to see where they end up now Badenoch has decided to stand and fight Reform) offer only the “freedom” to do what Trump tells us, and Labour (at best) are constrained by being in government and the need to pay their part in managing Trump.
Most people loath and fear Trump. They dont know where the Tories stand. Labour is incompetant and philosophically rudderless, and the Greens are totaly impractical. There is an opportunity.
Resounding cheers for Mark Carney! he made the sort of speech Starmer should have been making. And before anyone says ‘oh but £200billion’, just remember that Canada has had a far greater dependence on the USA for its export markets than the UK.
Mark Carney has realised that Canada needs far more diverse trading deals and is going out the get them. In you visit Canada, as I did recently, you will find empty shelves where USA goods used to sit.
Where is the UK boycott of USA goods? We should be urging consumers to look elsewhere for their products. We should be iurging shops to stop buying USA goods and clearing them off their shelves. There should be widely spread information of which goods are American, so consumers can stop buying them. We can reduce our dependcence on USA goods by not buying them. Tough on Coca Cola and pepsis drinkers, though on those who go to US owned fast food places. We can force them to close if we don’t patronise them.
I would urge all those who detest Trump and his bullying to take direct action and, as Ed Davey rightly said, hit Trump and his pals in the pocket.
“Canada has had a far greater dependence on the USA for its export markets than the UK.”
Canada has far more flexibility than the UK since (as I understand it) its exports are largely commodities, far more easily tradable on international markets than most other things such as the services the UK is good at.
That is not to say UK consumers should not take such measures, but it will not be easy. Take boycotting Coke. As I understand it all Coke really owns are the secret recipes and the brands. It manufactures and sells concentrates, beverage bases and syrups to bottling operations across the world while retaining responsibility for the marketing. In addition, shares in Coke will be held by pension funds across the world.
The result of a mass boycott of Coke then would be to hurt the local business and employees that process the syrups, and also people investing in pensions across the world, as well as the US economy. It may be worth it, but a more targeted approach is probably more sensible than a blanket boycott.
“Mark Carney…..made the sort of speech Starmer should have been making.”
Starmer would find it very hard to make such a speech – he’s a democratic socialist. Carney is a liberal.
The UK needs a strong EU, as a counter weight to the superpowers.
At present I would still regard the USA, Japan, China, Russia and soon India, and Brazil as the superpowers.
I think EU nations need to have a strong defence network.
The UK needs to work closely with the EU. A network of European democracies is required.
………..“Trump called me down to the Oval Office,” John Bolton, national security adviser in 2018, told the Guardian. “He said a prominent businessman had just suggested the US buy Greenland.”
It was an extraordinary proposal. And it originated from a longtime friend of the president who would go on to acquire business interests in the Danish territory…………..
The USA has been serious about buying Greenland since 1867..The USA only dropped a claim on Greenland in 1916 in exchange for buying the Virgin Islands..1n my lifetime (1946), Truman offered to buy Greenland….
Trump is erratic and his words are worthless; I’ll wager we haven’t heard the last of this..
Alongside economic measures and defensive international alliances, we should be making more use of ridicule. Bring back Spitting Image, and let’s see Don Trump commanding the drive-by shooting of his rival mafioso from Venezuela. Let’s award him the Global Tiddlywinks Peace Prize. Let’s have cartoons showing some toadies hand-pumping up a massively obese Trump rubber balloon, captioned Make America GREAT again. When the US public recognise that Trump has made America a joke, they’ll stop voting for him.
Isn’t it telling that our esteemed PM cannot bring himself to criticise Trump when he attacks our economy through tariffs, charges our NHS billions extra for drugs insists that the USA is our closest ally and only finally has a (very restrained) go when Trump disparages veterans.
Starmer is a useless PM and Ed is right to call him out