Ambassador ‘shocked by UK Brexit defeatism’
DONALD Trump’s ambassador to Britain has urged the country to be upbeat about Brexit, declaring it will be a great success.
Robert ‘Woody’ Johnson said he had been ‘startled’ by the ‘defeatist attitude’ towards leaving the EU that he has encountered since arriving in London last summer.
Setting out his positive vision for how the country will thrive without Brussels, the billionaire businessman said he wanted to tell the British people: ‘Don’t be pessimistic and have faith.’
He continued: ‘How can a country with this great a history, this great a language, this great a legal system and this great a presence not be successful?’
The 71-year-old, who is a close friend of the President, also said he was ‘super confident’ about the special relationship between Britain and the US.
‘The thing I want to get out more than anything else is an attitude that I feel I don’t see enough in this country and that is a confidence for where you are heading – light at the end of the tunnel with Brexit,’ he said.
‘The British have always been experts and great business people, great business minds, so to see this defeatist attitude towards Brexit is a bit startling to me. I read nothing about anybody having a positive attitude towards Brexit or towards the future.’
Mr Johnson, who was speaking in a Channel 4 programme documenting his first nine months in London, questioned why people are ‘so nervous’ about Brexit. He said: ‘I’m super confident about the relationship between the US and the UK… I’m very confident about what happens after Brexit.
‘I don’t think that is a major challenge, why are we so nervous? We don’t have the confidence in ourselves? We got the best people right here to do it.’
In a speech yesterday, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said it was time to ‘cheer up’. Miss Mordaunt said: ‘As we leave the EU we need to get our mojo back.’