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Kate Whannel<\/span>Political reporter <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Reuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said a trade war is in “no-one’s interest” after Donald Trump threatened to impose a 10% tax on imports from the UK and other countries who oppose his plans to take control of Greenland.<\/p>\n
Making a speech in Downing Street, Sir Keir said the “right approach” was “through calm discussion” and that retaliatory tariffs on the US were “not the right way to resolve differences”.<\/p>\n
He reiterated his belief that decisions about the island should rest with the people of Greenland and Denmark. <\/p>\n
Principle “cannot be set aside”, he said, but he vowed to take a “pragmatic” approach, emphasising both the economic and military importance of the UK-US relationship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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He said the situation was “very serious” and that it was a “moment for the whole country to pull together”.<\/p>\n
He welcomed the support he had received from the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch on the issue of Greenland and criticised those who “think an angry social media post or grandstanding is a substitute for hard work”. <\/p>\n
“It may make politicians feel good, but it does nothing for working people whose jobs, livelihoods and security rely on the relationships we build across the world.”<\/p>\n
Defending his decision to pursue a close relationship with Trump, the prime minister said it had delivered “hundreds of billions of pounds” of investment. <\/p>\n
Asked if he would consider imposing retaliatory tariffs, the prime minister replied: “We have not got to that stage, my focus is making sure we don’t get to that stage.”<\/p>\n
European leaders are expected to raise the future of Greenland with Trump this week when he travels to Davos for World Economic Forum.<\/p>\n
The prime minister is not currently due to attend but it remains an option as the week progresses. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The US president has argued that a “complete and total purchase” of the Danish territory is essential for US and global security. <\/p>\n
Located between North America and the Arctic, Greenland is a useful base for early warning systems for missile attacks as well as monitoring vessels in the region.<\/p>\n
Trump has said: “If we don’t take Greenland, Russia or China will take Greenland.”<\/p>\n
On Saturday he said he would place a 10% levy on goods exported to the US from the UK, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland.<\/p>\n
The tax would come into force from 1 February, rising to 25% on 1 June. <\/p>\n
If Trump does follow through on his threat to impose tariffs it could be damaging to the UK economy, whose biggest overseas customer, in terms of individual companies, is the US. <\/p>\n
Economists have estimates the new tariffs could take 0.5% off GDP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Over the weekend, Badenoch said she agreed with the prime minister on the sovereignty of Greenland adding that tariff threats are “a terrible idea”. <\/p>\n
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey – who has repeatedly criticised the prime minister’s efforts to pursue a close relationship with the US president – urged the government to “get tough on Donald Trump” adding: “If you do that, he has a history of backing down.”<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately up until now our government has rolled over.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Published at Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:20:47 +0000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Trade war in no-one’s interest, says PM in face of Trump threats 55 minutes ago Kate WhannelPolitical reporter Reuters Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said a trade war is in “no-one’s interest” after Donald Trump threatened to impose a 10% tax on imports from the UK and other countries who oppose his plans to… Continue reading Trade war in no-one’s interest, says PM in face of Trump threats<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk-politics","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}