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WATCH: Daisy Cooper urges Chancellor to launch 'buy British' campaign: 'People want to do something!'
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Apr 10, 2025
The Liberal Democrats have called on the government to launch a "buy British" campaign in response to Donald Trump's tariffs on UK goods.Lib Dem Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper urged the Chancellor to commit to the initiative during Commons questions yesterday.Doubling down on the proposal today, Cooper told GB News: “The fact of the matter is that people are sitting incredibly worried about what Trump's trade war means for them, their standard of living, the impact on the high street and on British businesses. People want to be able to do something about it."READ THE FULL STORY HERE
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0:00
Let's cross live to Westminster
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The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, we say hello, good morning and welcome to Daisy Cooper
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Good morning. Daisy, I mean, I suppose this is just not what you want to hear
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You want to hear that we're all behind you, Britain. We can do this, we can get through all of this
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if we support each other. I assume that would be your thinking. Absolutely
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The fact of the matter is that people are sitting at home and they're incredibly worried about what Trump's trade war means for them
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their standard of living, the impact on the high street and on British businesses
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And people want to be able to do something about it. So at the same time that we're calling on the government to take other measures
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whether that's scrapping the jobs tax or reforming the business rate system, we also think the government should be launching a big national effort
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to encourage people to buy British where they can and to make sure there's enough transparency about where products come from
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so people can make those informed choices if they choose to do so. Could that apply to Shorpe, the British steel plant at Shorpe
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Because there is now this debate whether it should be re-nationalised or not
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Well, certainly the very first thing we want to see is for steel to be identified and named by the government as a strategic sector for the government
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And we'd like to see more detail on how the government intends to use its procurement strategy to boost British steel
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whether that using more steel in our defence industry or whether it in our transition as well to net zero and in our renewable infrastructure So we do want to see more detail on that front But in terms of nationalisation everything needs to be kept on the table at the moment and we certainly not ruling it out
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As Liberals, nationalisation is not the first lever that we tend to pull, but we are in extraordinary times
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and it's important that we keep every option on the table right now. Can I ask you about the grooming gang scandal in this country
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The government promised five local inquiries back in January. Yesterday we heard from Jess Phillips talking about local-led work
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a flexible approach. What was your understanding of what was said and what's your response to it
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in terms of what this means for the victims? Well, I think the first thing to say
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is that some of the crimes that were perpetrated were absolutely horrific
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and we heard some of the details outlined in Parliament yesterday. I think it was incredibly distressing
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for people to hear that level of detail on those cases again
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I think what really matters is that my understanding is that there is not one view from victims as to what they want to happen
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So I think what's important at this stage is that as the government gives local authorities more flexibility on how they spend this money
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that there's real transparency around the decision making process and that victims themselves are involved in that process
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And in terms of identifying what needs to happen and how that money is spent
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I think the critical key thing here is that whatever councils decide and how they choose to spend this money
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that the victims themselves are at the heart of this process and they have a real say and a real voice in terms of whether they think it's
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going to be the right way to do it to make sure they have justice Are you satisfied though that the councils would then have control that they would essentially be marking their own homework Well as I say there isn as I understand it there isn just one view amongst victims themselves
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And some of them will want local authorities to be running these independent inquiries
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and others may want there to be a greater focus on just implementing existing recommendations
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I think there is wholehearted support, and certainly we Liberal Democrats have called on the government to agree to implement all of the 20 recommendations
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from the independent J report. I think what matters is that victims have got to have confidence
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in what local authorities now decide to do. And that means that when they are given this flexibility
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victims are at the heart of that process and there's real transparency and that those local victims can hold those local authorities
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to account throughout the process. Daisy, just before we say goodbye to you
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I'd just like to go back to that Buy British campaign again
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and why it's important to be involved in this. I remember in the 70s, 71, 72 or so, there was a British campaign
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I remember it was a whole big thing that you weren't patriotic if you didn't buy a British Leyland car, for instance
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You had to buy British on that. But I can remember seeing TV adverts
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and I can remember feeling the influence of buy a British apple
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buy whatever it was. Do you think there is the scope to do that now for people
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Absolutely there is scope for that But we already have Made in Britain which is a fantastic campaign that identifies items that have been manufactured here We all celebrate Small Business Saturday where we encourage people to go out and you know on a Saturday go and look for local items that have been manufactured here We all celebrate Small Business Saturday where we encourage people to go out and on a Saturday go and look for local items that are produced locally by small businesses to support our high streets So it sort of in our DNA to do
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this. But what we Liberal Democrats have said to the government is we want the government to go out
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and work with our European and Commonwealth allies to create new export markets so that British
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businesses can export abroad and that British products can be sold around the world. But at
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the same time we need to drive up demand here in the UK and the fastest easiest way of doing that
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is for the government to as part of a national effort rally around and encourage people to buy
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British and make sure there's that transparency with a new buy British label to make it clear
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which items have been grown here or have been made here. I just want to appeal to our viewers and
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listeners to what do they think about buying British would they be game for it would they not
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be game for it have you been down this road before did it make any difference? Dean Scoob just before
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Before we let you go, can I ask your reaction to the scenes in Birmingham? Because the bin strikes there have entered a fifth week
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and we're hearing reports of rats as big as cats, a sick stench in the city
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What's your reaction to what you're seeing and how would the Lib Dems be handling this crisis? Well, our local Liberal Democrats in Birmingham
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have said that the police need to intervene to make sure that where there are refuse trucks going out
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to collect the rubbish, they can actually reach the rubbish. But clearly there now does appear to be a bit of a public health emergency
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And I think it's vital that the impasse can be solved so that those trucks can get to the refuse faster and just clean it up
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It must be absolutely horrible for people who are living there
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