Ministers are reportedly working to stop the UK’s biggest steelmaker, Tata Steel, from being left out of tariff-free access to the US under Keir Starmer’s trade deal with Donald Trump.
The prime minister said on Wednesday that he hoped his deal with the US – which has been agreed but not signed – would come into effect “in just a couple of weeks”, after the US president decided to pause 50% tariffs on British steel and aluminium products for five weeks.