Top Tory hails US trade deal as win for Brexit - not Keir Starmer

A Brexiteer has hailed the UK-US trade deal as an "unequivocal Brexit boon". Tory peer Daniel Hannan said the new pact with America and the India free trade deal announced earlier this week were "made possible by Brexit".

Writing in The Telegraph, he said: "Labour ministers take justified pride in Britain having become the first country with which the US has agreed a trade deal since Trump announced his new tariff rates on April 2. They are less keen to broadcast the fact that their deal, just like their India free trade agreement, was made possible by Brexit.

"Donald Trump is less coy, declaring in his characteristically mangled way that it was only Britain’s EU membership that had prevented such a treaty being agreed years ago."

The former MEP added: "This deal, though Starmer won’t say so, is an unequivocal Brexit boon."

Mr Hannan added that the Tories and Brexiteers "should be taking credit for having done what all the clever Europhiles have spent six years telling us was impossible".

He added: "Instead of moaning, we should welcome Starmer’s belated understanding that world’s biggest and fastest-growing markets are outside the EU."

Sir Keir Starmer praised the "historic" deal after it was announced yesterday.

It removes tariffs on UK steel and aluminium imports to the US, and cuts the levy on cars from 27.5% to 10%.

But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch warned Britain had been "shafted" by the US trade agreement.

She also criticised tax exemptions for Indian workers in the pact with New Delhi.