Donald Trump's tariff a Brexit benefit? UK must escape its absurd Eurosceptic prison

Today’s political leaders need to think as deeply about the UK’s place in a changed world as Winston Churchill once did and realise closer relations with the EU are necessary

Keir Starmer is walking the UK back to sanity. But he needs to go further and persuade voters that moving closer to the EU is the way forward. Donald Trump’s America can’t be trusted.

The wasted years of Conservative government and Reform’s extremism are continuing to damage the UK, with both parties steeped in delusion and exceptionalism, and refusing to acknowledge the self-harm inflicted by Brexit.

Dogma is their response to the Trump crisis. The Tory party, aided by the right-leaning press, is trying to convince us that our relatively low ten per cent tariff is a Brexit bonus! And in this category of ideological drivel, former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch are urging Starmer to transform our country into a “Singapore-on-Thames” – a low-tax, deregulated economy on the doorstep of the EU. Liz Truss’s ideas just keep coming back.

What does this say about who the British are in 2025? The PM’s task in creating a different future is made more difficult by the refusal of these political parties to dump the delusion and join reality. Mythologising the days of Britain “ruling the waves”, alongside a deep-seated hatred of the European Union, is disastrous for the UK.

Winston Churchill, left, and US President Harry Truman, shortly before the former's famous 'Iron Curtain' speech in Fulton, Missouri, in 1946 (Picture: Fox Photos/Hulton Archive) | Getty Images

Winston Churchill’s vision

This is Starmer’s challenge. In the short term, he’s right to be “calm and collected” and resist instant retaliation, even though the public in general despises Trump and is wary about the government making concessions to American greed.

Does the UK side with the EU or the US? This is a huge but simplistic question and shouldn’t be answered without a glance back at history, taking a serious look at where we fit into this emerging new world order (or disorder) and considering the remarkable success achieved by the EU and the potential it offers for our future. Winning public support is the first step towards rebalancing our relationship with the US and building, as a priority, a new and bigger future in the EU.

Not for the first time, Sir Winston Churchill’s thoughts figure prominently in shaping the long debate about Britain’s global future.

In a speech in Zurich in 1946, he talked, for the first time, about a “United States of Europe” and in that same year coined the phrase “special relationship” to describe the historic and enduring alliance between the US and Great Britain in his famous “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri.

Two years later, Churchill introduced the idea of Britain being positioned “at the very point of junction” of “three majestic circles” as its Empire was closing down: the British Commonwealth; the English-speaking world, particularly the US; and a united Europe. The idea was that the UK would act as a global hub by maintaining good relations with all three.

The UK could use its influence to preserve its historic status as a major power, despite the gradual loss of its colonies. The idea of the three circles remained influential for decades, evolving over time into the concepts of acting as a “transatlantic bridge” between the US and Europe and the special relationship.

Nobel Peace Prize for EU

However, speaking at West Point in 1962, the then US Secretary of State Dean Acheson contested Churchill’s thesis, saying: “Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role. The attempt to play a separate power role, that is, a role apart from Europe, a role based on a ‘special relationship’ with the United States, a role based on being head of a ‘Commonwealth’ which has no political structure, or unity, or strength – this role is about played out.” Acheson was right then and we are still looking for a role.

History can explain a great deal. But the most compelling case for the future direction of the UK is made by the remarkable achievements of the European Union itself. Unfortunately, we have short memories.

In 1945, Europe lay in ruins, destroyed by war. Militarism, fascism and an ugly nationalism had engulfed Europe in a conflagration on an epic scale. The EU’s role in moving the continent from war to peace and the advancement of democracy and human rights was recognised with the award of a Nobel Peace Prize in 2012.

However, myth-making and lies on an industrial scale have poisoned British public opinion and now prevents a serious debate about being in or closer to Europe.

EU’s achievements trashed by political right

It is the future of the EU and its potential that should be the focus of the UK, despite its achievements being obscured, neglected, ignored or trashed by much of the press and the political right. The emphasis on our so-called “special relationship” with the US has distorted and undermined any attempt to understand Europe in a more progressive light.

The EU, with nearly 500 million people, is one of the largest players in global trade, being the second largest exporter of goods in the world after China and the third largest importer after the US and China. The EU is also the number one trader in global services. It is the world’s largest single market providing free movement of goods, services, capital and people. Excluding Türkiye and Ukraine at this time, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia all have candidate country status with the EU.

The bloc’s ‘Neighbourhood Policy’, involving a dozen countries in North Africa and the Middle East, is designed to “foster closer relations to promote stability, security and prosperity through cooperation and shared values”.

If full membership remains elusive because of the UK’s reluctance to ditch the past, then as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein have demonstrated, membership of the Single Market can be secured through the European Economic Area.

The true realisation of Global Britain can only happen through the EU. But is there enough common sense, courage, political energy, and a new vision in government to allow the UK to break free from this absurd Eurosceptic prison we find ourselves in?

Henry McLeish is a former First Minister