May is harming the Special Relationship

Shackling the UK’S defence and trade to the EU will undermine Nato and hurt the transatlantic alliance

Earlier this week, the leader of Britain’s closest ally fired the political equivalent of a cruise missile at the Government’s flawed Brexit plans. Donald Trump warned that the Prime Minister’s Withdrawal Agreement was “great for the EU,” and could prevent a trade deal between the US and the UK. It was a reflection of mounting concern in America that May is appeasing Brussels while thumbing her nose at Washington.

This goes well beyond trade. There are fears in the US that Britain may continue to be tied post-brexit to EU defence relationships that will undermine Nato and fundamentally damage the transatlantic alliance. British ministers rightly made clear yesterday that close Uk/european security and intelligence cooperation in the fight against terrorism would be a continuing priority post-brexit. But Downing Street has been disappointingly ambivalent in outlining how the UK will respond to ambitious French and German plans for an EU military. Mrs May’s failure to echo the recent stark warnings from the US president and publicly reject Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel’s reckless calls for an EU Army is a mark of weakness.

May has struggled to comprehend the broader significance of the US-UK alliance. The US is led by the most pro-british administration in decades, one that is wholeheartedly supportive of Brexit, and is keen to forge evercloser ties with the UK. Yet her approach is often cold and distant towards Washington, with an obsessive focus on pleasing the EU, sometimes at the expense of Britain’s American friends.

President Trump is not a man to hold back when he thinks a deal is bad for America. He pulled the US out of the Obama-era Paris Climate Agreement, which he viewed as a threat to American jobs. His administration disengaged from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a Cold War relic that has been consistently violated by Moscow, and does not cover China.

And he withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal (negotiated between Iran and the US, UK, France, Russia, China, Germany and the EU), when it became clear that Tehran had no interest in ending its support for terrorism and its ballistic missile programmes. The May Government’s decision to side with the European Commission, Berlin and Paris, against the US, in trying to protect the sinking Iran nuclear agreement, was not only wrongheaded but short-sighted, and a clear signal that Britain will continue to be aligned with the EU’S foreign and security policy post-brexit.

If Trump thinks a deal stinks, he will not hesitate to say so. And it is clear that the leader of the free world believes the Brexit deal negotiated between London and Brussels is harmful to US interests, the equivalent of a post-thanksgiving cold turkey. If the UK is shackled to the EU’S Customs Union indefinitely, as the Prime Minister’s deal allows, it will be impossible for the country to negotiate and sign free trade agreements, including with the US. No amount of spin from Downing Street can hide the fact that the deal May has negotiated with the EU makes a free trade agreement with the US highly unrealistic.

The long-term damage to the Special Relationship if May’s proposed Brexit deal goes through would be immense. A trade agreement between the world’s largest and fifth largest economies would be among the biggest in the world, and would be a force generator for jobs and investment on both sides of the Atlantic. To give the EU a veto over such a deal, even after Britain leaves, is an own goal of staggering proportions, and a slap in the face for the Angloamerican partnership.

The friendship between the US and Great Britain has been the most powerful and enduring bilateral partnership of the modern era. Brexit is a tremendous opportunity to strengthen the bonds between two great nations. May’s disastrous deal, however, will end up weakening the Special Relationship, undermining British sovereignty and emboldening the EU. This is a nightmare scenario that is in the interests of neither the UK nor the US.