Government rejects 'buy British' campaign to combat tariffs

Downing Street has declined to officially back a "buy British" campaign in response to Donald Trump's tariffs.

Sir Keir Starmer's spokesman said the UK was "an open-trading nation" and the government was "not going to tell people where they buy their stuff".

Chancellor Rachel Reeves told MPs such a campaign would be "inward looking" and was "not the way forward", in response to Liberal Democrat calls to encourage the public to buy more British goods and produce.

But ministers are reported to be reviewing Whitehall procurement rules to give an advantage to British firms bidding for government contracts.

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The government has repeatedly stressed that it will not be rushed into retaliatory measures after the US slapped a 10% import tax on nearly all UK products entering the US, on top of already-announced 25% levies on aluminium, steel and cars.

The PM told a senior group of MPs the government is keeping its options open for retaliating to US tariffs "if necessary" but he did not think the UK should "jump in with both feet".

"I think that trying to negotiate an arrangement which mitigates the tariffs is better," he told the House of Commons Liaison Committee.

During Treasury questions in the Commons, Lib Dem Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper urged the government to show people concerned about the impact on their cost of living that "Britain is not going to take Trump's tariffs lying down".

And she called on the chancellor to get behind her party's campaign for a new "Made in Britain" logo for consumer products backed by an advertising blitz.

Reeves told the Lib Dem MP "ratcheting up barriers to trade, ratcheting up tariffs will not be in our country's interests, whether that's in inflation or indeed for supply chains".

She added: "In terms of buying British, I think everyone will make their own decisions.

"What we don't want to see is a trade war, with Britain becoming inward-looking, because if every country in the world decided that they only wanted to buy things produced in their country, that is not a good way forward."

The prime minister's official spokesman also rejected the "Buy British" campaign but added that the government "is always going to back British producers, British manufacturers".

In response to a call from Tory MP John Hayes to use government procurement to back British jobs and British products, Rachel Reeves said Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden "has set out new reforms to procurement rules to enable just that".

She added: "We want more British businesses to win contracts, we want more small businesses in Britain to win contracts."

In February, the government set out new rules aimed at making it easier for small and medium-sized British companies to bid for government contracts, building on legislation passed by the previous Conservative government.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the government will go further when it unveils its industrial strategy and public spending review later this year.

Major public sector infrastructure projects - such as transport, offshore wind and defence - will be told to "Buy British", the newspaper says.

Asked if she would back a "buy British" campaign, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: "I think we should always buy British."

But she added: "We won't be able to buy British if the economy is weakening."

Responding to the Tory leader's apparent backing for their campaign, the Lib Dems said: "Even a broken clock is right twice a day."