2016.11.14.

TheresaMaysetsoutstallforUK'splaceinTrumpsworld|Politics|TheGuardian

Theresa May sets out stall for UK's place in

Trumps world
Britain must be global leader in free trade, says PM, after Brexit vote and Donald Trumps election as US
president

Jessica Elgot
Monday 14 November 2016 00.01GMT

Britain must adapt to the moment and evolve its thinking to become a global leader in free
trade, Theresa May is to say.

The prime minister will pledge to lead the charge in remaking globalisation, days after Donald
Trump was elected US president on the promise of protecting American industry and ending a
string of free trade agreements.

Mays speech will be seen as an attempt to reposition the UK after the Brexit vote and the US
presidential election and as a response to Nigel Farage becoming the rst UK politician to meet
the president-elect over the weekend.

Not standing inexibly, refusing to change and still ghting the battles of the past, but
adapting to the moment, evolving our thinking and seizing the opportunities ahead. That is
the kind of leadership we need today, May will tell the lord mayors banquet in London.

Her speech follows reports that British ambassador to the US, Sir Kim Darroch, wrote a memo
immediately after Trumps victory that suggested Trump would be open to outside inuence
and that better relationships with his team meant that Britain would be uniquely placed to
take advantage.

During his election campaign, Trump argued repeatedly that the pursuit of free trade policies
had predicated the collapse of homegrown manufacturing industry, bringing cheap consumer
goods at the expense of American jobs.

He has since appeared to row back on a number of campaign promises, and in his rst TV
interview since being elected he told CBSs 60 Minutes programme on Sunday night there
could be some fencing in his proposed border wall with Mexico.

Trump said up to 3 million illegal immigrants including those with criminal records, gang
members and drug dealers could be deported or jailed after his inauguration in January.

Less than a week after the victory of the real estate billionaire, whose own business dealings
have come under repeated scrutiny, Mays speech will warn about the undermining of the
social contract when a minority of businesses and business gures appear to game the system
and work to a dierent set of rules.

Businesses and governments must change to regain that trust, she is to say, not just to do
business but to do that business in the right way.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/14/ukmustbecomegloballeaderinfreetradetheresamaybrexitvotedonaldtrumpelection?utm_sour 1/3
2016.11.14. TheresaMaysetsoutstallforUK'splaceinTrumpsworld|Politics|TheGuardian

Asking business to work with government to play its part is profoundly pro-business, because
it is fundamental to retaining faith in capitalism and free markets. To be the true global
champion of free trade in this new modern world, we also need to do something to help those
families and communities who can actually lose out from it.

Britain cannot aord to stand still in the era of such vast and sweeping changes to political
orthodoxy, May will say at Londons Guildhall. So often over our long history, this country has
set the template for others to follow.

We have so often been the pioneer the outrider that has acted to usher in a new idea or
approach. And we have that same opportunity today.

The prime minister will say she will be unrepentant in her argument that free markets and free
trade are the best remedy for poverty, but that the government can also do much more to
ensure the prosperity they provide is shared by all.

May will say that Britain has an opportunity to show that our departure from the European
Union is not as some people have wrongly argued Britain stepping back from the world, but
an example of how a free, exible, ambitious country can step up to a new global role in which
alongside the traditional trading blocs; agile nation states like Britain can trade freely with
others according to whats in their own best interests and those of their people.

This is a new direction a new approach to managing the forces of globalisation so that they
work for all and it is the course on which the government I lead has embarked.

Mays speech comes after Farage claimed Trumps team had raised concerns with him about
hostile comments made by British ministers about Trumps presidential campaign. Boris
Johnson, the foreign secretary, and both Mays joint chiefs of sta have also criticised Trump.

Farage met the president-elect for an hour on Saturday night at Trump Tower in New York,
posing for a grinning photograph with Trump in front of a pair of ostentatious gold doors. He
was the rst foreign politician to meet Trump since his election, and the pair discussed
returning a bust of Sir Winston Churchill to the Oval Oce.

The interim Ukip leaders oer of serving as a go-between for the UK government and the
Trump administration was roundly rebued by No 10. A Downing Street source said Farages
activities in the US were an irrelevance. We are not using Nigel Farage as a go-between for the
very simple reason that he does not represent the government, the source said. He is an
opposition politician.

Another government minister said Farage was clearly on a frolic of his own, adding that
high-level visits were already being planned. Trumps knowledge of foreign aairs is not
probably his strongest suit, and he may not be fully aware that Farage is not an ocial member
of the government, or representing the UK, the source said.

The former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, a prominent leave campaigner,
said Farage was just trying to get attention rather than representing British interests.

This is an ego trip not a diplomatic one, Duncan Smith said. While the PM focusses on
sensible, measured diplomacy in Britains national interest, all Farage cares about is talking
rubbish abroad.

While some senior Conservatives have indicated that a lack of trust in Farages intentions
makes a negotiating role impossible, a senior former cabinet minister told the Guardian that

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/14/ukmustbecomegloballeaderinfreetradetheresamaybrexitvotedonaldtrumpelection?utm_sour 2/3
2016.11.14. TheresaMaysetsoutstallforUK'splaceinTrumpsworld|Politics|TheGuardian

the Ukip leaders help in forging a productive relationship with the new US administration
should not be dismissed out of hand. He is probably the most successful, non-machine party
politician the country has seen in a long while, the source said.

Frankly, given what the political establishment have said about Trump, any help Nigel Farage
is able to give Great Britain with the incoming administration should be welcomed. But the
normal machinery of government and diplomacy clearly now kicks in.

Speaking after the meeting with the president-elect, Farage said: It was a great honour to
spend time with Donald Trump. He was relaxed and full of good ideas. Im condent he will be
a good president. His support for the US-UK relationship is very strong. This is a man with
whom we can do business.

Johnson was absent from an emergency meeting of Europes foreign ministers in Brussels on
Sunday, which had been called to hash out unied stance on Trumps election.

Foreign Oce sources insisted Johnson believed the meeting was unnecessary since there was
a regular meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday, though his decision not to attend
wwould be intended to send a signal that the UKs loyalty would be to the special relationship
rather than the EU.

More news

Topics
Theresa May Donald Trump EU referendum and Brexit Foreign policy European Union More

Save for later Article saved

Reuse this content

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/14/ukmustbecomegloballeaderinfreetradetheresamaybrexitvotedonaldtrumpelection?utm_sour 3/3