Just a few moments ago, I spoke to President Trump, the President of the United States.
And I am really pleased to announce to you, and I wanted to come to you to announce it, that we have agreed the basis of an historic Economic Prosperity Deal.
That is a deal will protect British businesses and save thousands of jobs in Britain, really important, skilled, well-paid jobs.
It will remove tariffs on British steel and aluminium, reducing them to zero.
It will provide vital assurances for our life sciences sector, so important to our economy and grant unprecedented market access for British farmers without compromising our high standards.
And for the great British cars that you make here, that we see all around us, this deal means that US tariffs will now be cut from 27.5% to 10% for 100,000 vehicles every year, that’s a huge and important reduction.
And I know from when I was last here, how much that will have been weighing on your minds when you knew the size of the tariffs that would otherwise be in place.
To get that decrease was hugely important to me and I can tell you my teams were working really hard on this deal night and day for weeks. I was working with them.
And in politics what matters sometimes is who you have in your mind’s eye when you are making these deals, who do you have in your mind’s eye when you are taking decisions.
What I took away from here last time was you and the brilliant work that you do and had you in my mind’s eye as we did that.
We have scope to increase that quota as we go forward, this is not fixed, this is where we have got to.
And all of these tariff cuts will come into place as soon as possible and that’s really important in relation as well to the work that you are doing, and the brilliant cars that you make.
And as Adrian has said I was here with you just a few weeks ago and I promised you that I would deliver in the national interest.
And today I am really pleased to come back here, to be able to look you in the eye and say I have delivered on the promise I made to you.
And that’s why as soon as I knew this deal was coming in today, I said I want to come back to JLR to talk to the workforce there, for whom this means so such.
Now of course we are the first country to secure such a deal with the United States.
In an era of global instability that is so important. The great challenge of our age is to secure and renew Britain.
And that is what we are going to do.
Acting in the national interest.
Shaping this new era – not being shaped by it.
If it’s not good for Britain, we won’t do it.
If it doesn’t mean more money in people’s pockets, we won’t do it.
If it doesn’t mean security and renewal in every part of the country – we won’t do it.
But that doesn’t mean we’re turning inward.
Instead, we are sending a message to the world that Britain is open for business – seeking trade agreements with India on Tuesday, with the US today, and working to boost trade with other partners too – including of course the EU with who we have an important meeting just a week on Monday.
Making deals that will benefit working people.
You know – in recent years an idea has taken hold that you show strength by rejecting your allies.
That you shut the door, put the phone down, storm off. I’ve had plenty of people urging me to do that rather than stay in the room and fight for the interests of our country.
I want to be absolutely crystal clear – that is not how this Government operates. It is never how this Government operates. We don’t storm off, we stay in the room, and we negotiate, and we work for our country with the national interest at the foremost of our mind.
Because the other way of working doesn’t deliver the benefits that working people need.
And so I also want to be clear – this is just the start.
With the deal we have done today we can say: jobs saved. Jobs won. But not job done.
Because we are more ambitious for what the UK and US can do together.
So we are hammering out further details to reduce barriers to trade with the United States across the board.
We have £1.5 trillion invested in each other’s economies, creating 2.5 million jobs across both countries.
There are so many areas where I think we can even more than that and put more pounds in the pockets of working people across the United Kingdom.
As the two biggest services exporters in the world, we will work to bring down barriers, creating jobs in our thriving services sectors – in Leeds, in Manchester, London and Birmingham.
As the only two western nations with trillion-dollar tech sectors we will go further to deepen our partnership in new technologies to shape the innovations of this century together and create the jobs of the future.
Because, look – our history shows what we can achieve when we work together.
And what timing for this deal, that we have agreed this deal on VE Day.
80 years ago, today Churchill was addressing the nation at the end of the Second World War. Victory in Europe.
And we were standing the United Kingdom with the United States on defence and security. For 80 years we have been the closest of partners, and today we have added to that trade and the economy in the special relationship between us.
Defined by peace and economic prosperity.
So, it is fitting today that we renew the bond on the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
