The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, denied that the question of freedom of expression arose in the tariff negotiations with the United States after the reports was compromised could be compromised by the outcome of a criminal case in Dorset.
The Office of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), an office in the US State Department, met the anti-abortion activist Livia Toscici-Bolt, which was prosecuted for an alleged violation of a buffer zone outside a bournemouth abortion clinic. The verdict is due on Friday following a trial before the short magistrates.
In a statement after the meeting, published on X, the office said: “American-UK relations share mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. However, as Vice-President JD Vance said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.”
He added: “We monitor his case. It is important that the United Kingdom respects and protected freedom of expression.”
The daily telegraph On Tuesday, quoted an anonymous American source which, according to the newspaper, knew the commercial negotiations as a warning, there would be “no free trade without freedom of expression”, questioned on the comments of the DRL.
Asked about the reports, Reynolds, which heads the Department of Affairs and Trade, said that freedom of expression had not been part of the commercial negotiations in which he had been involved.
He told Times Radio: “Obviously, there are things from different people in the administration they have said in the past on this subject, but that is not part of the trade negotiations of which I have been part.”
He added later on the BBC Radio 4 TODAY program that freedom of expression had not been a “material factor” in negotiations and that the concerns came from the US State Department rather than from the US Commerce Department, which leads to trade.
Keir Starmer said it was likely that Donald Trump’s prices would hit the United Kingdom, but the government was working on an agreement to mitigate the effects.
The Prime Minister told Sky News on Tuesday: “The probability is that there will be prices. No one is delighted with this. We are obviously working with the most affected sectors on this subject. No one wants to see a trade war but I have to act in national interests.”
This meant “all the options remain on the table” in response, he added.
“We are of course negotiating an economic agreement which, I hope, mitigate the prices,” said Starmer.
When asked if he had been “played” by the American president, who should strike the United Kingdom with prices despite Starmer’s efforts, he said: “The United States is our nearest ally. Our defense, our security, our information is linked in a way that two other countries are not.
“It is therefore obviously in our national interest in having a close work relationship with the United States, which we have had for decades, and I want to make sure that we have done so for decades to come.”
He said that talks on an economic agreement would normally take “months or years”, but “in a few weeks, we have advanced well in these discussions”.
Downing Street would not comment on Tossici-Bolt. But with regard to the measures announced under the last government, the official spokesperson for the Prime Minister said: “The government is clear that it is essential that a woman who decides to use the abortion services has the right to choose to do so without being subject to harassment or distress, and that is why the previous government has announced rules around this.”