in his first interview since taking up his role as the UK's ambassador to the US. The deal has reduced or removed tariffs that were recently imposed by US President Donald Trump on some of his nation's imports from the UK, including cars, steel and aluminium. Former New Labour cabinet member Lord Mandelson has played a crucial role in negotiations between the two nations since he started his job in February.

Speaking to BBC Two's Newsnight he said he was "looking forward" to further agreements to bring "down further tariffs". On Trump's self-declared 'Liberation Day' in  April he announced that the UK would be subject to 10 percent tariffs on all  the goods it exports to the US. More stringent measures were later applied to cars, steel and aluminium. But on Thursday, the US agreed to allow some steel and aluminium into the country tariff-free, and reduced the levies on a set number of British cars. Since then, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said there are "ongoing discussions" with the US over the UK's own Digital Services Tax (DST) - a 2 percent levy that raises about 800m pounds a year mainly from US tech companies. Lord Mandelson said it was discussed during the latest round of negotiations between the two nations but he said "abolishing" the DST had not been part of the trade deal. "If the Americans want to come back and discuss the digital services tax, it's up to them," he said. "What they suggested wasn't acceptable to us, so it's not in the deal," he explained. (BBC)