Trade deals 'hugely important' for farmers, Prime Minister Keir Starmer says
He was speaking after a meeting yesterday with the four Yorkshire mayors in London, at which growth promotion and new trading possibilities were discussed.
It comes after deals were agreed with India, the USA and most recently the EU.
In an interview with the Yorkshire Post, Sir Keir Starmer said the deals would benefit a range of sectors across the county, including car manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and agriculture.
Speaking about the regional summit, he said: “The meeting was really constructive, we focused on how to deliver from Yorkshire and at the heart of the discussion today were the three trade deals that we struck.
“Of keen interest for Yorkshire was obviously the 3,000 jobs in car manufacturing in Yorkshire, and the deal with the US is really important in preserving those jobs, but also quite a high number of jobs, 2,000 in pharmaceuticals, particularly in Hull and East Yorkshire, and again, the deal with the US that massively helps on pharmaceuticals will be welcomed.
“And the deal with the EU removes barriers to food exports and agricultural exports into the EU, which for farmers across Yorkshire is hugely important, because they can now export without the barriers, the bureaucracy, and obviously what comes with that is the cost.
“And then finally on things like manufacturing, Rolls-Royce and McLaren, which are hugely important in Yorkshire, and Hitachi, Bombardier and Siemens, so there was a really good discussion about what this means for jobs and money in people's pockets.”
After local elections earlier this month, the three Labour mayors in North, West and South Yorkshire were joined at the meeting by Reform’s Luke Campbell, who won the inaugural Hull and East Riding mayoral election.
Asked whether this had changed the dynamic of the meeting, Sir Keir said: “We addressed that at the beginning of the meeting because we had mainly Labour mayors across the country, but other parties represented, so I indicated we would not have a political discussion, we would put that to one side and focus only on how does the Labour government work with our mayors, whoever they may be, to deliver for the people of Yorkshire.
“And so this was less of the party knockout politics, which I haven't got a lot of time for. More of the sleeves rolled up - we've got these three trade deals - can we now look at where in Yorkshire that's going to make a big difference, and get on with delivering it.
“So the meeting was very constructive, very positive and exactly - in my view - how government ought to be working, because at the end of the day, we’ve got to deliver for people in Yorkshire and they're not particularly interested in political squabbling.
“They ought to know if you've got a trade deal with India how does that help me?
"If you've got a trade deal with the US, what does that mean if I'm working in a car manufacturing business?
"And I wanted to make sure that that is passed on and delivered in Yorkshire at pace, so we left our baggage at the door and got on with delivering.”
The Prime Minister was also asked about the U-turn on the winter fuel payments announced earlier this week, on which he said more details would be revealed ‘at a fiscal event’ – likely to be the Spending Review on June 11.