Conservative shadow foreign secretary Tom Tugendhat has urged Andy Burnham to block Argentina's entry into the CPTPP trade pact unless President Javier Milei drops threats over the Falkland Islands. The intervention follows Milei's renewed "sacred" claim to the territory and his announcement of sanctions on oil exploration around the islands, emboldened by Donald Trump's pledge to "review" long-standing US neutrality on the dispute. Tugendhat argued Britain should use its economic leverage, saying Milei needs the UK as an ally to help resolve Argentina's economic crisis but cannot be treated as a trade partner while threatening British sovereignty.

The UK completed full access to the CPTPP this month, a bloc with a combined GDP of around £13 trillion, alongside Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Britain maintains that sovereignty over the Falklands, seized unsuccessfully by Argentina in 1982 in a conflict that killed 649 Argentines, 255 Britons and three islanders, is not in question, pointing to a 2013 referendum in which 99.8% of islanders voted to remain British on a 92% turnout. Tugendhat framed the issue as a test of the UK's ability to unite economic, diplomatic and military policy in its national interest.