News Beat
Trump has a bee in his bonnet, Labour minister says after President broadsides ‘weak’ & ‘clueless’ Europe
BRITAIN’S Trade Secretary has accused Donald Trump of “having a bee in his bonnet” after the US President’s astonishing broadside at “weak” Europe.
Labour’s Peter Kyle hit back at the astonishing tirade that accused European leaders of putting wokeness before borders and being “clueless” on trade.
After he told Politico that Europe is “decaying”, the Labour Cabinet minister suggested President Trump “sees the world differently from his predecessors, that is not new”.
And Mr Kyle attempted to play down the attack, adding: “I’m not sure whether he’s referring to Britain in that, though.”
He told Harry Cole Saves the West: “Don’t forget when he came over just a short while ago, he brought £150 billion worth of trade with him. America is speaking with its investment when it comes to Britain at the moment.
“They are investing heavily into Britain, in AI, into lots of different sectors across the UK. And this isn’t just money that’s going into London.
“The Bank of America is investing in Northern Ireland. We’ve got data centres being built in Blyth in the north-east of England.
“You know, multi-billion pound investments right around the UK. And this is America going big on Britain as it is today.”
Speaking in Washington DC during an official visit, Mr Kyle continued: “President Trump has for a long time had a sort of bee in his bonnet, as you say, about Europe and also about the world as it is. He sees the world differently from his predecessors. That is not new.”
And he argued the amount of investment into the UK from America was far more important than the President’s broadside.
He went on: “If you take President Trump at his word, he said during that state visit that when Britain and America are working together, it is the greatest partnership in the history of humanity.
“He really values the partnership that comes from Britain and America, which is why we delivered the first deal and it was the best deal, using the President’s words.
So Britain and America working together is something that is incredibly important to the President. It matters to the President.
“I think it matters emotionally as well as economically and that’s why we had so many successes because the partnership between the Prime Minister and him is not a likely friendship, but it is certainly a relationship that is delivered for both countries.
Elsewhere in his interview Mr Kyle warned pro-EU Labour MPs and ministers that Britain would not be rejoining the EU.
There are growing reports Sir Keir Starmer could seek to re-enter the EU’s protective customs union, despite doing post-Brexit trade deals with the US, Japan, Australia and the Trans Pacific Partnership.
But Kyle said: “We would never do anything that would endanger the trade deals that we have in place. We’ve never talked about rejoining the Customs Union.”
