Britain is ready for its own Trump
3 min read
Congratulations to the 47th President of the United States, Donald J Trump.
He won against all the odds: every trick in the legal book was deployed, every hurdle was put in the way, every mainstream media across the Western world was against him. It must have seemed a mountain to climb. Still Trump prevailed, dodging assassins' bullets by a whisker along the way.
But the message sent by American voters to Washington is their comprehensive rejection of the status quo. They prefer conviction politics, with a strong personality from their leaders. Voters have had enough of classic, smooth wafflers who talk a good game but fail to deliver. Voters want action, not words, to get stuff done.
Voters here will rightly feel a sense of envious regret
The scale and manner of Trump’s victory, despite all the well paid pollsters and commentaries predicting a Harris win or very tight race, gives serious food for thought. Are these people out of touch, incompetent or simply biased to the point of lacking professional rigour?
I understand Trump has a well-honed executive team of experienced doers almost fully lined up and ready to fill the 2,000 plus administration jobs. This team of crack people is set to include Elon Musk, who could come in and slash the bloated state sector. The focus is simple: growth to make people more prosperous; border control to protect people from mass illegal immigration; law and order to keep people safe.
To achieve growth President Trump will reduce the obsession with net zero and drill as fast as possible to ensure cheap reliable energy in the US. He will aggressively protect American jobs via tariffs. Less will be more in regulation terms.
Imagine what it will be like in two or three years’ time: the US economy is likely to be powering away from us while we probably head towards stagnation, with mounting deficits and unsustainable debt levels. Voters here will rightly feel a sense of envious regret. Our growth will be flatlining and our energy bills will be soaring as the cost of net zero spirals way beyond what we were told.
As we inch closer to the next general election, Reform will show voters how to run a proper economy.
Our leader Nigel Farage, with his strong links to Trump, can be a powerful advocate for Britain at the heart of the US President’s team. We have a great starting point in that Donald Trump likes the UK – unlike Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
We should push to restart a partial trade deal on some quick wins. We do not want to be caught up in US v EU protection tariffs, for example. This is a Brexit freedom so let’s use it. We can urge change on the humiliation of the Chagos deal. We can learn how to cut the size of the state in a big way.
We must have the confidence to deregulate like the US, not increase regulations to align with the EU.
On Foreign policy, I hope President Trump will use his power and personality to accelerate the end of wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. He is deliberately confrontational and unpredictable here, which disarms his opponents. We were all safer geopolitically during the first Trump term than under President Biden. We must help the US by accelerating our move to 2.5 per cent GDP defence spending.
Above all, let’s remind ourselves that voters want confident, determined leadership with some personality thrown in for good measure.
Richard Tice, Reform MP for Boston and Skegness and deputy leader of Reform UK
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