Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has denounced Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on the UK and European allies until a deal is struck for the US to take over Greenland as “completely wrong”. The US president had vowed to place a 10% levy “on any and all goods” exported to the US from 1 February, which would rise to 25% on 1 June.
Starmer, who has so far maintained a strong relationship with Trump, said the UK would be pursuing the matter directly with the White House. The Trump administration has been ramping up calls for the US to take control of Greenland, a Danish territory in the Arctic, on national security grounds, alarming both European allies and those living on the island.
In addition to the UK, Trump said the new tariffs would apply to products from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. The UK was the first nation to strike a deal to reverse or cut some earlier tariffs imposed by the US, while Starmer has acted as a key intermediary between Washington and Europe on ending the war in Ukraine.
However, the UK recently joined other European nations in defending Denmark’s ownership of Greenland as the Trump administration’s rhetoric on the issue escalated, and was among several countries to deploy troops to Greenland’s capital Nuuk earlier this week as part of a so-called reconnaissance mission.
Faced with striking a careful balance between allies increasingly at odds, Starmer reiterated his position that Greenland was part of Denmark and its future was a matter for the two alone to decide. “Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of Nato allies is completely wrong. We will of course be pursuing this directly with the US administration,” he said on Saturday.
Starmer’s comments represent a rare public rebuke of the US president and mark an important test for the US-UK “special relationship”. Trump’s fresh tariff threat has also drawn criticism from across the UK political spectrum, with Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Reform UK leaders all condemning the move.