A senior economic adviser to Donald Trump has urged Sir Keir Starmer to pursue closer ties with the US and not the “socialist” European Union if it is interested in a trade deal. The president-elect has indicated the US could introduce blanket tariffs of up to 20 per cent on imported goods and up to 60 per cent for imports from China.

Donald Trump would be more willing to clinch a free trade agreement with the UK if it turns away from the EU’s “socialism” and towards a US model, a senior economic advisor to the president-elect has said.

Britain has been told to move closer to the US to negotiate a trade deal instead of aligning itself with the "socialist model" of the EU, one of Trump’s top economic advisers has claimed. Resuscitating his previous administration’s trade negotiations with the UK,