Donald Trump is back in the White House and the UK is playing catch-up once again. Whether it’s Mandelson grovelling for his job or Starmer waiting almost a week for a phone call, it risks a re-run of the President’s first term when opportunities were missed. And now, in a potential indicator that those in Whitehall were caught on the hop, the Department of Business and Trade have this week put a new job advert. The post in question? ‘Head of Tariff Strategy’.
Yep, that’s right, for the whopping salary of just £55,000, you too could be bartering with Donald Trump’s tariff-loving aides. According to the 2,177-word advert, ‘you will have the opportunity to shape the UK’s international trade agenda for years to come’ and establish ‘the UK as a leader at the World Trade Organisation.’ Duties include ‘developing a coherent strategy for our tariff policy’ and ‘leading the UK Global Tariff policy response to global developments’.
Given all the nasty things that Labour politicians have said about Trump, that might be a little bit harder now. The work is based in Darlington but is listed as ‘hybrid’ (of course). There doesn’t seem to be a huge appetite for the role: according to LinkedIn, just seven people have clicked ‘apply’ on the post. Don’t all rush at once…
It’s worth remembering too that the situation has been made worse by the loss of the UK’s chief trade negotiation adviser Crawford Falconer. Andrew Griffith, the Shadow Business and Trade Secretary, told Steerpike that:
We might need a Head of Tariff Strategy less urgently if members of the government had not spent years crafting student politics insults about the President of the United Status. Instead of playing defence, Labour ministers should have already been in Washington talking trade with Trump.
If negotiating with The Donald seems too easy, don’t worry: there are a slew of other challenging roles available in Westminster. Among them include Ed Miliband’s ‘vanity photographer’, ‘City Steve’s’ press secretary and, er, serving as the ‘National Parliament Representative’ in the House of Lords to build a ‘network of contacts’ in Brussels.
Let’s hope there’s plenty of gluttons for punishment out there!
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