Trump's victory will make Brexit even more painful

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in President Trump's Oval Office when the request arrives from Britain not to impose extra trade tariffs.

- CHRIS BLACKHURST

Rachel Reeves has said she will make "strong representations" about the harm such a protectionist measure would inflict.

During his election campaign, Donald Trump said “tariffs” was his favourite word, and he repeatedly floated the possibility of increasing levies by up to 60 per cent on goods imported from China, and 10 per cent on those from the rest of the world.

Some say Trump is not a vindictive type, that he does not bear grudges. Others, who also profess to know him, are not so sure. Whatever. His face, when the UK pleads for some sort of special treatment, will almost certainly break into a smile.

As to whether he will follow through with an increase – any increase – it’s impossible to say. But the very fact that Britain has got itself into this situation, of effectively having to beg for mercy, speaks volumes about the shortsightedness of its new government. In a two-horse race, they staked all their bets on one horse.

More than 100 Labour staffers answered an email from the party’s head of operations and flew to assist Kamala Harris’s effort, prompting a charge of “blatant foreign interference” from the Trump camp. When the Republicans complained, Keir Starmer had every opportunity to apologise and call the Labour workers back, but he didn’t. He correctly pointed out that they were volunteering in their own time, not that Trump’s camp was listening.