How will Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs impact you?

Keir Starmer has spent the first months of the second Donald Trump presidency trying to save the UK from the US President’s trade war.

Today, he admitted defeat. British businesses will be hit by a new round of US trade tariffs, the Prime Minister told his Cabinet on Tuesday morning.

As part of what Trump is calling “Liberation Day”, on Wednesday the White House will unveil sweeping tariffs that could hit every product imported to the US from every country around the world.

It seems the UK will not be a special case – at least initially.

It’s a defeat for the Prime Minister, who, unlike the EU and Canada, has held back from announcing retaliatory tariffs in a bid to get an exemption for the UK.

Despite being cash-strapped, the UK Government even dropped a tax on US web giants like Google and Facebook to try and win Trump over.

How will Liberation Day affect you?

So how will Liberation Day affect you?

Well, you might work for a company that produces goods sold to the United States, or are in a supply chain that ends up there. In that case, your employer could lose business, hitting your job or your pay.

If you have a pension, then part of that is probably invested in the stock market, and stocks have already been hammered by trade tariffs announced so far by President Trump, on Mexico and Canada, and on steel, aluminum and cars from around the world, including the UK.

And then for the rest of us, these tariffs are expected to knock 1% off UK economic growth.

That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it represents billions of pounds of lost revenue for the UK Treasury.

That means that Chancellor Rachel Reeves might have to make even deeper cuts to public spending or raise taxes when she delivers her next budget.

Spare a thought for Scotland’s top politicians – Liberation Day will be awkward for them, too.

Many are already in the US or are headed there soon, to mark Tartan Week.

On Tuesday night, the Scottish secretary is holding a private reception at the British Embassy in Washington.

On Wednesday, Scottish dancers and pipers will perform outside the US Capitol building – around the same time British businesses are finding out how badly they’re being clobbered.