Sir Tony Blair has offered the Sir Keir Starmer advice on the best way to respond to a 10% tariff on UK goods entering the US. Labour's former Prime Minister admitted he didn't really understand the intellectual argument behind the blanket tariff policy announced by US President Donald Trump but warned Sir Keir Starmer against reacting with tit-for-tat levies on American imports.

"I don't think it is in the UK's best interests to retaliate," Blair told students at King's College London, as first reported by The Independent. The Labour leader between 1997 and 2007, who championed the 'special relationship' between the US and the UK during his tenure, also praised Starmer's "cool heads" approach to dealing with the global uncertainty generated by Trump's slew of tax measures. The 10% tariff on UK products came into force at around 5am this morning and many other countries will see their tariff rates hiked even higher next week, including the European Union, which will be hit with a 20% rate.

China has already announced a retaliatory tariff of 34%, matching the new rate imposed by Trump, on all goods from the US from April 10.

The UK has been cautious in its response to what could escalate into an all-out trade war, however, with some ministers still hopeful that a trade agreement with America can be secured.

Despite this, the Government has published a list of US products that could be hit in retaliation to the 10% levy and is running a four-week consultation with UK businesses about how the counter measures would impact them.

The Prime Minister is expected to spend the weekend discussing how to respond to the tariffs with foreign leaders after calls with his Australian and Italian counterparts on Friday.

In a statement after his conversations with Australia's Anthony Albanese and Italy's Giorgia Meloni, a Downing Street spokesperson said Sir Keir had "been clear the UK's response will be guided by the national interest".

They added the leaders had agreed that "an all-out trade war would be extremely damaging" and the Prime Minister said UK officials would "calmly continue with our prepatory work, rather than rush to retaliate".

Chancellor Rachel Reeves also said on Friday the Government was "determined to get the best deal we can" with America.

She added: "Of course, we don't want to see tariffs on UK exports, and we're working hard as a government in discussion with our counterparts in the US to represent the British national interest and support British jobs and British industry."