Break free of Europe to turbocharge growth, White House tells Starmer

Britain must break free of Europe and follow America to turbocharge growth, Donald Trump’s commerce secretary has told Sir Keir Starmer.

Howard Lutnick, a senior official and former boss of investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, said the UK has been held back by adopting a European attitude towards business and wealth.

“In America, we celebrate the entrepreneur,” he said. “We celebrate the innovative. We celebrate success and Europe has historically looked down on that right.

“Your participation in Europe all those years sort of convinced you to look down on it.”

He urged the Government to be more business-friendly in the wake of the country raising taxes on US tech companies and strengthening regulation.

His comments come after the White House has repeatedly criticised the Government’s Digital Services Tax (DST), which rakes in £1bn a year from tech giants such as Amazon, Apple and Google.

Mr Trump’s administration has also raised concerns over Labour’s new Online Safety Act owing to concerns around free speech.

Mr Lutnick was speaking alongside Peter Kyle, the Business Secretary, at an event organised by tech company Nvidia on Thursday. It was part of the US president’s state visit, which unveiled details of a new £31bn UK-US tech prosperity deal.

Mr Lutnick said: “To build and to win and to create a trillion-dollar company, you need to celebrate the building of success. You need to have it as a cultural change that says, ‘We want you in this room [the start-ups] to win. We want you to win.’

“In America, we have it in our soul, right? And one of the things of the visit is for you guys to look at Donald Trump and to get from him his love for Britain and his advice would be, follow the lead of America.

“Build, grow, celebrate, invest – but you need to take care of these people.”

It is vital that entrepreneurs “feel you love them”, the commerce secretary said, suggesting that companies which do not feel appreciated should “come to America”.

Matthew Sinclair, a former senior economist to Liz Truss and now at the CCIA, a tech lobby group, also claimed the UK would benefit from stronger ties with the US by scrapping the DST.

He said: “If you remove the DST, you remove a persistent threat of US retaliation as both the administration and Congress have made clear their strong opposition to discriminatory taxes on US companies.”

Mr Sinclair said such a move would also open the door to a new digital trade agreement with America, prompting potentially more investment from some of the world’s biggest tech companies.

“The UK trade strategy talks about digital trade agreements as an opportunity and an agreement with the US would be a big prize,” he added.