A brilliant trade deal with the United States is one of Brexit’s most glittering prizes. It would be a personal triumph for Sir Keir Starmer to nail this down, especially as it eluded his Conservative predecessors.
If only the Trump White House had a similar hunger to sign on the line. Reports that Team Trump are prioritising Asian countries and once again pushing for Britain to water down food standards signals they are hardly pulling out the stops.
President Trump knows that securing a deal is a top UK foreign policy objective. He has leverage over the Brits – why would he rush to give that up?
The trouble for Sir Keir is that the longer the delay, the greater the chance he falls out with Mr Trump.
The PM will face a nightmare choice if he has to choose between the special relationship with the United States and loyalty to Canada, a Commonwealth ally whose head of state is King Charles.
Canadian PM and former Bank of England Mark Carney is braced for battles with Mr Trump, who has slammed the US’s northern neighbour with tariffs and wants to make it the 51st state. Mr Carney, a champion of Chancellor Rachel Reeves, has declared Canada’s “old relationship with the United States” is “over”.
Mr Trump, he said, “is trying to break us so that America can own us”.
Sir Keir can expect a blast of transatlantic fury if Britain jumps to Canada’s defence. Likewise, there will be US consternation if the Britain signs up to a raft of common standards with the EU which will prevent American food products filling our supermarket shelves.
And if the US attempts to impose a peace settlement on Ukraine which looks like capitulation to Russia, Britain would again be forced to pick sides. Senior figures across the party spectrum will warn emboldening the Kremlin threatens the future security of Britain and Europe.
There is a crumb of comfort for Sir Keir in all this. Mr Carney, a mild-mannered master of bureaucracy, defeated a previously poll-topping Conservative populist after clashing with Mr Trump; a thunderous confrontation with Mr Trump could devastate the chances of a trade deal but rescue Labour from its polling swamp.
