Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has described US president Donald Trump an “unreliable ally” and said his stance on Ukraine has been “damaging” for Britain’s security.
In an interview with Katherine Forster on GB News, he said MPs should be given a vote before UK troops are deployed there, and that the government should be looking for an “UK-EU customs union”.
Reacting to the sentencing of teenage killer Nicholas Prosper, he said: “This is a harrowing and shocking crime, and my thoughts are with all the friends of the family who were murdered.
“And I think we should pay tribute to police who stopped even more serious crimes being affected. So, I think we need to look at this in the most profound way.
“I hear the Home Secretary is calling for a domestic homicide review. That's quite an important measure.
“We need to look at the firearm sales controls, and I think you're right about what young men are looking at online. We need to make sure that the tech companies aren't putting us all at danger.”
He said the government had made mistakes that have hampered economic growth: “I think we all knew we had to clear up the mess from the Conservatives, but I don't like lots of these measures that Labour's putting forward. I think the winter fuel payment abolition was a big mistake and can hit a lot of pensioners, and Liberal Democrats have opposed that.
“I think the National Insurance rise is a mistake. Yes, we needed to find more money for the health service and care, the Liberal Democrats argued for that. But we showed a different way, a fairer way, which wouldn't have hit small businesses, wouldn't have been a drag on growth, and would have enabled us to get the money into the health and care system which is so urgently needed, while making sure our economy can prosper.
“Liberal Democrats believe we need to invest in our health and care systems, and we’ve proposed other tax measures which are much fairer and wouldn't drag the economy down.
“We've argued, for example, the big banks should pay the taxes they were in 2016 until the Conservatives gave them big tax cuts. That would raise over £4 billion a year. We've argued that social media giants can afford to pay more in tax.
“We've argued, for example, that a digital services tax should be raised that would hit those large multinational companies, often American, and make them pay their fair share. We've argued that online gambling firms should pay a bit more.
“We put forward tax measures because we know the financial mess that the Tories created has to be dealt with. We know we need money for our public services but the way that Liberal Democrats are proposing, it wouldn't be such a drag on our economy.
“We absolutely need to grow our economy. We called for an emergency growth budget next week, both to reverse the jobs tax that Labour's put forward, but also to improve our trading relationships with Europe.
“If we're going to grow our economy and get trading again, we've got to get rid of that dreadful trade deal the Conservatives did and look at things like a UK-EU customs union.”
On comments about immigration by US vice president JD Vance, he said: “Vance is wrong about almost everything. He's wrong on so much, and let me be clear why the growth has been so bad in our country.
“Because, unlike JD Vance, I live in this country. I've talked to businesses in this country. I've talked to people who care about our country, and we're worried that actually Brexit did cause a lot of the damage.
“The referendum happened in 2016, nine years ago, and that chilled investment for a long period, even before it happened. But we also need to improve productivity. That's been a big issue for the UK, and we need to make sure our skills agenda is better.
“We need to embrace new technology, be it AI or other digital technology, and we need to make sure we're trading better with our European neighbours.
“We do need to train our own people. I argued, Liberal Democrats argued at the last election, the Conservatives made a huge mistake with health and care. Visas were over, 400,000 people were issued with health visas to come to this country to help in our health and care sector, because we weren't paying our own people decent wages.
“We called for a higher minimum wage for care workers, and better conditions and recognition for care workers, which would have meant we wouldn't have had to have those health visas.
“The Conservatives made a real mess of immigration. They made a real mess of health and care because they didn't get the economic policies right.”
Asked if he thought Donald Trump was a great dealmaker, Sir Ed said: “There's as yet no evidence that President Trump is being tough on Russia and tough on President Putin, and that's a really bad development. It's bad for Ukraine, who deserve our support.
“The Liberal Democrats believe we should stand shoulder to shoulder with our Ukrainian allies against Russia's illegal invasion. But President Trump's position, I think, is damaging, not for just for Ukraine. I think it's damaging for European security. It's damaging for Britain's defence too.
“I'm really disappointed that it's only the Liberal Democrats who are calling out President Trump. I'm afraid the Conservatives and Reform seem to apologise for him, and while I understand the government has to walk a difficult line with the White House, I really think they should be more critical of him.
“He is an unreliable ally. And other leaders of governments, whether it's the prime minister in Canada or other presidents and prime ministers in Europe, have been tough, much tougher, on President Trump, and that's what Liberal Democrats want our government to do.”
On UK troops being deployed as peacekeepers in Ukraine, he said: “I think there should be a vote on that. It wouldn't be an emergency deployment of troops, and it's going to be a very serious moment.
“We need to make sure that any peace deal is a proper deal, both for Ukraine and for Europe, and we need to make sure that our troops are going there, properly protected, working with Americans and our other European allies.
“And I think the Prime Minister is right on that, but I think we've got a long way to go, I fear, and I think President Trump is showing himself too willing to listen to the Kremlin and to repeat Russian propaganda, and the way he's treated President Zelenskyy and Ukraine is frankly appalling.”
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