Jonathan Reynolds says ‘we have engaged with the US on the potential for a deal’

Good morning. So much for the “unprecedented” state visit invite. The real spring statement, the one that is likely to have most impact on the UK tomorrow, is coming tomorrow, when President Trump announces global tariffs, and the government expects that the UK will not get an exemption. As Nick Robinson put it to Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, in the opening question of his Today programme interview this morning: “Sucking up to Donald Trump didn’t work, did it?”

On the Today programme, and in his other interviews this morning, Reynolds’s response was essentially: Not yet. He argued that the UK still has a good chance of winning tariff exemptions, but just not tomorrow. Or that the sucking up might still pay off – not that Reynolds put it quite like that.

We have engaged with the US on the potential for a deal, because that is in the UK’s national interest, and actually would be mutually beneficial to the US and the UK …

Only the president will himself know exactly how the US is going to take tomorrow. And you’re right to say it might not be possible for any country in the world to be exempted from the initial announcements.