Snubbing Donald Trump would have cost tens of thousands of jobs, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has warned, as the US President prepares to touch down in the UK for a four-day visit.
Reynolds also said that he would be pressing the US to agree to cut tariffs on UK exports to the USA to zero in meetings with Trump's team over this weekend ahead of an expected meeting between Trump and Sir Keir Starmer on Monday.
Trump is expected to be greeted by protesters when he visits his golf courses in Scotland.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats have repeatedly said that the Government must take a tougher stance with Trump.
GB NEWS
|Snubbing Donald Trump would have cost tens of thousands of jobs, Jonathan Reynolds warned
However, Reynolds told today's Chopper's Political Podcast that he "would respect any legitimate leader of a key ally in partner".
He added: "I've been offered in Parliament all kinds of advice, and in the press, of how to deal with this relationship - most of it terrible, to be honest.
"You could play it for politics like the Liberal Democrats in particular... Boycott this, don't talk to the Americans.
"That would have cost tens of thousands of jobs.
"Jaguar Land Rover supports over 44,000 jobs in the UK, so when I see people [protesting], it's not that I don't understand legitimate grievances, I really understand how they look at things.
LATEST ON THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP:
PA
|Reynolds is under pressure to extend a US deal signed at the G7 in the Rocky Mountains in Canada
"But I want them to understand why I am going to fight for this country's interests and fight to keep people in work.
"At the end of the day, that would be tens of thousands of people from backgrounds like mine - people I went to school with, at the Nissan factory in Sunderland, who would be out of work.
"Communities would be really, really damaged."
Reynolds is under pressure to extend a US deal signed at the G7 in the Rocky Mountains in Canada to pharmaceuticals, and to reduce tariffs on UK exports of steel and aluminium.
REUTERS
|Adopting the Lib Dems' attitude to Donald Trump 'would have cost tens of thousands of jobs', Reynolds said
He said that his ambition was to have zero tariffs between the UK and US.
"My view was always [that] the entire world was going to end up negotiating with the US. That's the reality. Let's get to the front of that queue," he said.
"I want zero tariffs. That's my input. That's my goal. Even if that's not possible. That's what I think it should be. We have with the approach we've taken. I think it's been vindicated by the results that we've got."
Listen to Chopper's Political Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or watch it on GB News' YouTube channel.