Voters urge Labour to turn away from Trump and look to EU for trade, poll finds

And it’s not just on trade and the economy that the public feel that Europe is more important to the UK than America.

Voters want Britain to turn away from Trump and look more to the EU for trade, a new poll has found.

The poll, carried out by JL Partners on behalf of the Good Growth Foundation and shared with the I paper, asked voters whether Europe or the US is “more important to the UK” in “terms of trade”. 58% of those asked chose Europe, compared to 34 per cent who chose the US.

Asked which is more important to Britain “economically”, 57 per cent opted for Europe compared to 34 per cent who went with the US.

And it’s not just on trade and the economy that the public feel that Europe is more important to the UK than America.

The ipaper reports: “Respondents also said Europe is more important than the States to the UK “diplomatically” (47 per cent to 42 per cent), “on foreign policy” (51 per cent to 39 per cent) and “politically” (53 per cent to 36 per cent).

“The results show that only Reform UK voters rank the US as more important to the UK across the categories, with all other parties’ voters – including the Conservatives – seeing Europe as more significant.”

The poll findings also come as Trump, who is a protectionist, has said that he plans on introducing a 20% levy on most imports to the US in order to help out domestic businesses, with 60% on imports from China.

According to analysis from the Centre for Economics and Business Research, those plans will mean a hit of £20bn to the UK economy, amounting to a reduction in the UK’s economic output by 0.9 per cent by the end of his presidency.

With economic growth a priority for Keir Starmer’s government, some have been pushing him to adopt closer ties with the EU in order to counter balance any economic hit from Trump’s plans.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward