BLOOMBERG, NOT TRUMP, WOULD BE A WHOLE DIFFERENT DEAL

FOREIGN Office diplomats have far more reason to look nervously over the Atlantic than across the Channel.The increasingly unpredictable race for theWhite House is raising uncertainty about Boris Johnson’s push for a UK-US trade deal.

Relations between the Prime Minister and President Donald Trump have been strained in recent weeks.While the two leaders are friends, they have clashed over the role of Chinese tech firm Huawei in Britain’s mobile communications network and the US refusal to extradite a CIA agent alleged to have been involved in the car accident that killed the teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn.

Whitehall insiders have been taken aback by the ferocity of PresidentTrump’s language in recent calls to Downing Street.

They fear the volatile president could prove to be a nightmare to deal with in trade negotiations.

As a result, some British diplomats are understood to be rooting for the billionaire candidate Michael Bloomberg in his bid for the Democrat party’s nomination for the presidential election this November. Opinion polls give the former NewYork mayor, with vast personal wealth to fund his campaign, a fighting chance of beating Mr Trump.

In his stint as London Mayor, Mr Johnson had cordial relations with fellow big city boss Mr Bloomberg.

“Boris Johnson really does think outside the box. He is very well-loved in London. People think he’s doing a good job and from what my friends tell me he really is,” Mr Bloomberg said in 2015.

Some diplomats believe the Democrat contender could be a more straightforward negotiating partner than the erratic MrTrump.

Mr Bloomberg’s lacklustre performance in aTV debate with Democrat rivals this week leaves the outcome of the election even more difficult to call.Yet, if his campaign does gather momentum, Foreign Office chiefs will have a dilemma about establishing discreet contacts with his team.