They have used interviews with The i Paper to outline a series of deep-rooted problems with the British state that they say leave the UK ill-equipped to deal with the economic crisis now threatened by Trump’s tariffs.
Simon Fraser, an ex-Foreign Office permanent secretary, said he thought the Government may have been “caught off guard by the scale and speed” of the tariffs crisis – and suggested it had decided not to reveal the severity of the situation.
The warnings come as trade talks with the US intensify. Just last week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves travelled to Washington to ease tensions and salvage a long-sought UK-US trade agreement, amid Trump’s threats of new tariffs on a wide range of imports.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves speaks during the Semafor World Economy Summit in Washington last week (Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty)Fraser said in practice, this setup was struggling. “There have been tensions between departments,” he said. “There is overlap and competition between the DBT and the FCDO as trade has rapidly become entangled with diplomacy under Trump.”
Whitehall frustrations mount
Foreign Secretary David Lammy (Photo: James Manning/PA Wire)
Some suggest reforming government structures to better respond to the Trump-era challenge. One option could be merging trade and foreign policy functions – something Canada and Australia already do. But some feel that Britain’s FCDO should be given more time to get over its last big merger, with the former Department for International Development, in 2020.
He added: “When dealing with the Trump team, individual relationships seem to matter much more than Whitehall government structures.”
That mechanism could be a smaller, high-level group like the “quad” used during the Covid pandemic, involving No 10, the Treasury, the DBT and FCDO.
Hannah White, director, Institute for Government
“An executive cabinet would be better able to pivot the Government’s agenda in response to major events and to balance significant, cross-government trade-offs such as those created by the actions of Donald Trump.”
“The machinery exists,” he said. “The NSC enables the PM to set priorities and weigh trade-offs. In the hyper-personalised world of Trump, much of the negotiating has to be done at leader level. The NSC is a flexible tool to ensure all the key ministers and the top advisers (Chief of Defence Staffs, intelligence heads) are working together.”
A ‘G6’ bloc could exclude the US
Some senior officials have floated the idea of a “G6” – a bloc of like-minded democracies excluding the US – to uphold multilateral trade and security. That would mean closer cooperation with the EU, which remains politically sensitive. The UK and EU will hold their first bilateral summit on British soil since Brexit on 19 May – this could be pivotal for Starmer’s planned UK-EU reset.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in October as he continued his quest for a post-Brexit reset of relations with the EU (Photo: Nicolas Tucat/AFP)‘Lack of heavyweight economic expertise in No 10’
Lord Gus O’Donnell, former Cabinet secretary, warns that there is limited economic firepower at the heart of Government.
However, he added: “There’s an absence of heavyweight economic expertise in No 10, and that will make coordination more difficult.”
Brexit created another vulnerability: the UK lost access to Brussels’ trade machinery and must now negotiate independently. In addition, relations with Washington face a reset. Trump’s second administration has installed new officials, disrupting networks built over past years.
Last week on a visit to the US capital, the Chancellor said she wants “to see tariff and non-tariff barriers reduced” as she sought to secure a deal in DC.
The Government was contacted for comment.
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