UK needs new EU trade deal, not scraps from the White House

British prime minister Keir Starmer and US president Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in February. Photograph: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images A free trade agreement with the US was one of the big carrots dangled in front of UK voters by Brexiteers. There was talk it might boost UK-US trade by £40 billion a year. Back in 2019, then British prime minister Boris Johnson pegged it as a tonic to ease the pain of breaking with Europe, the UK's largest trade partner. At the time US president Donald Trump whet appetites by promising…