What do Trump's tariffs mean for the UK car industry?

Minis, Land Rovers and Range Rovers, McLarens and Aston Martins, Rolls-Royces – cars are Britain's biggest export trade to the US, worth around £8 billion for more than 100,000 cars a year. It's one-sixth of all the cars built in the UK, and just that US portion is thought to be worth 25,000 jobs, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research. There are components too, including engines for BMWs assembled in the USA.

The Nissan plant in Sunderland and Toyota in Burnaston don't send cars to the US, but some of their suppliers also supply JLR, and so there's a danger of them going under if JLR suffers big production cutbacks.

Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer said yesterday to the UK car business, "we've got your backs". He wants to steer away from a trade war, or subsidies for carmakers that export to the US. But he has announced some different help to them by softening the EV mandate, making it less expensive to bring about, mostly by slowing the transition in the early part of the slope to the 2030 cutoff for pure-ICE new car sales.

UK manufacturers really want a trade deal with the US, which would mean the tariff is reduced. But for that to happen, Britain would likely have to throw other policies under the bus, such as a tax on US digital corporations, or environmental and safety standards on US foodstuffs.