Today’s announcement of the new UK-US trade agreement raises serious concerns about the lack of democratic scrutiny surrounding the deal.
While the agreement is presented as a breakthrough, it appears to be extremely limited in scope, and crucially, MPs have been shut out of the process with no opportunity to scrutinise or vote on its contents.
Tom Wills, Director of the Trade Justice Movement said:
“This deal may be extremely limited in scope, but it sets a deeply concerning precedent. MPs were sidelined throughout the entire process, and won’t get a vote to approve it. That’s democratically outrageous. And this is only the beginning. Starmer has said a tech deal with Trump is now the UK’s priority, raising the risk of tax breaks for Big Tech and signing away our power to regulate AI in the public interest. This looks like the starting gun for exactly the kind of trade agenda we’ve long warned against, which makes proper parliamentary oversight more urgent than ever.”
This agreement marks the first major trade deal under the Labour government. However, despite Labour’s previous criticisms of the UK’s weak trade scrutiny processes, the Government has failed to ensure Parliament’s meaningful involvement in trade decision-making.
TJM will continue to push for stronger democratic accountability in trade negotiations to ensure that future agreements reflect the public interest, not just the priorities of powerful corporate lobbies.
