US will always stand by UK, pledges new ambassador

WHATEVER happens in the Brexit negotiations, America will stand by Britain, the new US ambassador to the UK has said,

Woody Johnson last night used his first speech as ambassador to emphasise the long-standing ties between Britain and the US, saying they would not be harmed by Brexit.

“Britain’s decision to leave the European Union takes your country into new territory – but you are not heading there on your own,” he said. “The United States is committed to standing with the UK through Brexit.

“Our position on Brexit is clear. We want a strong and prosperous UK to remain a leader in Europe, and we want both the UK and the EU to remain strong leaders globally.”

Speaking in Middle Temple Hall in London at the annual lecture of The Pilgrims of Great Britain, an Angloamerican friendship society, the 70-year-old billionaire owner of the New York Jets American football team said the UK would always have a “strong and reliable trade partner” in the US, despite Brexit.

“It is in everyone’s interest that Brexit be transparent, smooth, and orderly,” he said. “But whatever the outcome of the negotiations between the UK and the EU, Britain should know you will have a strong and reliable trade and investment partner in America.”

Mr Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical empire, told how his grandfather chose the UK to establish the company’s first overseas subsidiary more than 100 years ago. The lure remains “just as true today,” he said.

“Our countries are among each other’s largest inward investors. Americans and Brits hold roughly one trillion dollars of investment and employ approximately one million people in each other’s countries – jobs that have increased prosperity and opportunity in all four countries of the United Kingdom and in every American state,” he said.

Seeming to reference Barack Obama’s warning that the UK would be “at the back of the queue” for trade deals after Brexit, Mr Johnson said: “As far as the president is concerned, the United Kingdom, our most enduring ally, is always at the head of the line.”

Mr Johnson used his speech to reassure his audience that they would warm to the new president. “Many of you do not know the president,” he said. “I have known him for over 30 years. Our sons were born three days apart in the same hospital. Our relationship is long-standing, personal and close. And I can promise you, when you get to know him, you’ll like him.” Hillary Clinton is “convinced” that associates of the Donald Trump campaign colluded with Russia to beat her in the US presidential election last year.

In her most outspoken allegation so far, she said she was in “no doubt” that people connected to her rival helped Russia to interfere.

Mrs Clinton was speaking as she promoted her 495-page book about the campaign called What Happened. In it, she called Mr Trump “hateful and flagrantly sexist”, and a “fraud and liar” who made her skin crawl.