Home secretary Yvette Cooper has indicated that no progress has been made to exempt the UK from US president Donald Trump’s tariffs, adding that they could harm the entire world’s economy.
Asked by Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme how damaging she thought the tariffs could be, the home secretary said: “In the end, if you increase barriers to trade right across the world, that’s not good for the world economy, let alone any individual country as part of that.
“So that’s why our approach to this has been to try and seek new trade agreements across the world, including improving our trading relationship with the EU as well as with the US.”
Cooper reiterated the Prime Minister’s message that “no option is off the table”, when it comes to responding to the tariffs.
Discussions with the US over exemptions from the levy are “intense”, she said.
Cooper added: “We obviously can’t keep a running commentary on different discussions that are taking place, but we have to always make sure that we’re acting in the national interest.”
Immigration
The government is also reviewing how international human rights law is applied to migration cases, Cooper said, ahead of convening a summit with other countries aimed at tackling people-smuggling gangs.
Ministers are reviewing how article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – the right to family life – applies to migration law, the Home Secretary signalled.
The ruling has been used to halt the deportation of migrants from the UK, including an Albanian man who was able to remain partly because of his young son’s aversion to foreign chicken nuggets.
Cooper will lead a gathering of ministers and enforcement staff from 40 countries in London on Monday and Tuesday to discuss international co-operation on illegal migration, as well as supply routes, criminal finances and online adverts for people smuggling.
Ahead of the meeting, she was asked by the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme if she could confirm reports that ministers are reviewing how the ECHR applies to migration law.
Media reports in recent weeks have suggested the government wants to follow the lead of Denmark, which is said to take a tougher stance on how the right to family life is applied to migration cases.
Cooper replied: “Well, we continue to support international law. That is really important, and it’s because we support international law that we’ve managed to get new agreements with France and Germany.
“There have been some cases that do raise some real significant concerns, and that is also about the way in which the immigration asylum system operates.”
She added: “It’s about the application, including of article eight, as the Prime Minister has said, so we are reviewing all of this area to make sure that, really, the immigration asylum system works effectively in the way that Parliament meant it to, and make sure that there is a sort of proper sense of control in the system.”
By David Lynch, Claudia Savage, and Anahita Hossein-Pour, PA
