Are things beginning to look up for Rachel Reeves?
The Chancellor will meet America's top economic official, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, today as she concludes her trip to the International Monetary Fund's spring meeting in Washington. As we've covered on Coffee House this week, Rachel Reeves will use her meeting to attempt to make an Anglo-American trade deal a realistic possibility.
Yesterday, on one of President Trump's favourite news channels, Newsmax, the Chancellor put in a surprise appearance and said she understood that both her government and the Trump administration were elected by voters who felt globalisation had not worked for working people. The tone of her interview was very much aimed at the President and his team.
But speaking to an audience closer to home on the BBC, she highlighted the importance of our trading relationship with Europe instead: 'I understand why there's so much focus on our trading relationship with the US, but actually our trading relationship with Europe is arguably even more important,' the Chancellor said.
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