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Hello, I'm Susan Hume and this is the Yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Wednesday the 2nd of April, the House of Commons was waiting with some trepidation for President Trump's announcement on tariffs.

The Prime Minister starts his weekly Commons question session with a statement. It's often

somber subject matter, tragic accidents, commemorations and wars both past and current, so it's

heard in respectful silence. This week, the hush was for trade wars. Let me be clear with the

house. A trade war is in nobody's interests.

And the country deserves, and we will take a calm, pragmatic approach.

That's why constructive talks are progressing to agree a wider economic prosperity deal with the US.

That's why we're working with all industries and sectors

likely to be impacted. Our decisions will always be guided by our national interest. And that's

why we have prepared for all eventualities. And we will rule nothing out.

The Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davy picked up on the bit about getting a UK-US deal.

I hope he is able to cut a deal,

but I increasingly fear that the deal won't be good enough to avoid a global trade war.

That's why I think one of the options must be to work with our European allies, our Commonwealth allies and others,

because we don't tackle Trump's tariffs.

We could be saying goodbye to free trade for a generation.

Kier Starrer wished Ed Davy would keep his voice down.

I really do think it's not sensible to say the first response would be to jump in to a trade

war with the US. That cannot be the first response of the United Kingdom. And I will resist his

urgings to do that. There had been talk that the UK might avoid President Trump's tariffs in

...