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Britain on Tuesday refused to join the EU in threatening a trade fight with the US over steel tariffs and followed Washington in declining to sign a global accord on artificial intelligence, in a sign of Sir Keir Starmer setting a new foreign policy in the era of President Donald Trump.
Lord Peter Mandelson, Britain’s new ambassador to the US, told the Financial Times that Britain had to embrace “any opportunities opening up as a result of Brexit” and earn a living in the world by being “not Europe”.
An early sign of that approach came as trade minister Douglas Alexander told MPs that the UK would not join the EU in immediately threatening tariff reprisals against the US, after Trump announced a 25 per cent tax on all steel and aluminium imports.
Alexander said the steel tariffs were not due to take effect until March 12 and that Britain would use the time to talk to the Trump administration and assess its options.
“Of course, we want to avoid a significant escalation,” he said. “This is an opportunity for the UK to exercise both a cool head and clear-eyed sense of where the national interest lies.”
Downing Street has not ruled out retaliatory tariffs, but ministers privately admit that such a move would have little impact on the US and risk putting Britain in line for further Trump tariffs.
Alexander said British steel exports to the US were worth about £400mn and that tariffs would be a “significant blow”, but Downing Street has noted that they amounted only to about 5 per cent of UK steel exports.
Although Number 10 has left retaliatory tariffs on the table, there has been none of the talk seen in Brussels of “firm and proportionate countermeasures”.
Mandelson, who began work in Washington this week, said he remained convinced that Brexit “inflicted the greatest damage on the country of anything in my lifetime” but that he accepted it would not be reversed.
The Labour peer said one of his “signature” objectives as ambassador would be to build closer ties between the UK and the US on AI and technology, warning that the EU had become too rules-bound.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Conservative leader, said: “These Brexit freedoms could not have come at a better time. We have an opportunity to set our policy for the US and Peter Mandelson’s job is to remind people in Washington that we are out with the EU.”
“It’s funny that it’s a Labour government that has discovered the benefits of Brexit,” remarked one veteran diplomat.
However, Britain’s attempts to “reset” relations with the EU could be harmed if Brussels perceives Starmer, the prime minister, to be getting too close to Washington and undercutting the European economic model.
On Tuesday, Britain joined the US in refusing to sign a global AI agreement in Paris; the statement was signed by France, China and India among other countries.
Downing Street said France remained a close partner in areas such as AI, but that the UK “hadn’t been able to agree all parts of the leaders’ declaration” and would “only ever sign up to initiatives that are in UK national interests”.
The statement pledged an “open”, “inclusive” and “ethical” approach to AI development, but US vice-president JD Vance warned delegates in Paris that too much regulation could “kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off”.
One senior UK government official said Britain had opted not to sign the communique because its language was not sufficiently focused on national security and leaned more towards focusing on safety and ethics.
“We have taken a slightly different approach to the EU . . . the character of the way we’re dealing with AI is quite different,” the person added, noting that the strategy had “opened the door diplomatically” in terms of Britain’s dealings with the US.
The UK government has sought to position its AI Safety Institute as an organisation focused on national security, with direct links to intelligence agency GCHQ.
Senior figures around Trump, including Elon Musk, had been highly critical of the focus by Joe Biden’s administration on “woke” concerns around AI safety, including bias and misinformation, but are deeply involved in efforts to ensure the novel technology furthers the west’s national security interests.
