The science secretary said the government would assess ‘any changes and challenges’ to the global economy caused by the US administration.
Science secretary Peter Kyle was put under pressure during the morning media round over reports that the online CV of Rachel Reeves contained inaccuracies after another round of media speculation about the chancellor’s career prior to entering politics.
He told BBC Breakfast “What you’re talking about here is something that Rachel has already addressed, and it is someone on her team set up a LinkedIn profile, and they got the dates out by a few months actually.”.
Unfortunately, the reporting has been totally inaccurate, and we heard yesterday that the person who was actually head of HR at that bank at that time says it’s untrue, said that she never, ever receive a file on Rachel Reeves.
And she says that before she left the bank, there was no investigation that passed her desk. And she’s also said if there was one, it would have passed her desk. I didn’t see any of that reporting included in the story I read yesterday evening on the BBC website.
The first thing to reassure people is that we need a government with cool, clear thinking at times like this, and this is what you have with this Government.
We will assess any changes and challenges that come down the line from any part of the global economy, and we will act appropriately in the best interest of Britain.
The administration has so far threatened more tariffs than it has introduced. Duties on Colombia were shelved when it agreed to accept military aircraft carrying deported immigrants; duties on Canada and Mexico have been repeatedly delayed; and modified duties on steel and aluminum, announced earlier this week, will not be enforced until next month.
An additional 10% tariff on goods from China is, for now, the only threatened trade attack actually enforced since Trump returned to the White House. On Friday, it emerged that a key component of this – removing the longstanding duty-free status of low-cost packages – had been delayed.
