Greenland: Proposed US Tariffs

Lord Fox Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I watched the Prime Minister’s statement this morning and I would not at all describe it as softly-softly. It was made very clear what the United Kingdom stands for and what we think of this proposal. The Prime Minister stood there publicly and laid it out for people to make their own assessment of where they think we are. The right thing to do is to carry on in that vein. That has served us well up until now. Our Prime Minister has a good relationship with and the respect of President Trump—much to many people’s surprise, I might add. Nevertheless, that is where we are. He is someone I know quite well, and I would say that he is quite well suited to this kind of diplomacy.

[Lord Fox (LD)]

My Lords, to hear the Minister talk about diplomacy is reassuring, I am sure. However, does she agree that, to back up that diplomacy, bringing forward a credible plan as to how we are going to meet our spending obligations in defence to meet our NATO obligations would be sensible, and that publishing the defence industrial plan now would be a good way of backing up that diplomacy?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

It is Monday, and these announcements were made at the weekend, so further announcements will be made. I agree that the defence investment strategy is incredibly important, but it should be published when it is ready and we should not be rushed into doing things before that.