US deal ‘impossible’ under May’s Brexit
A “quick, very massive” trade deal with America would not be possible under Theresa May’s Brexit plan, the US ambassador has warned. Woody Johnson said Britain was “in need of leadership” and that despite Donald Trump “looking forward to and hoping” for a trade agreement, the current terms meant it did not look possible. It came as Theresa May told MPS the country could not start a “new chapter” unless they backed her deal.
BRITAIN is “in need of leadership”, Donald Trump’s ambassador to the UK has said, as he warned a “quick, very massive” trade deal with the US would not be possible under Theresa May’s Brexit plan.
Woody Johnson said Mr Trump was “looking forward to and hoping” a post-brexit bilateral trade agreement could be struck between the two countries. But he warned that the Prime Minister’s plan for taking Britain out of the European Union was likely to make such a deal impossible.
It came as Mrs May used her new year message to tell MPS the UK will be unable to start a “new chapter” unless they back her Brexit deal when it is put to a vote later this month.
“The Brexit deal I have negotiated delivers on the vote of the British people and in the next few weeks MPS will have an important decision to make,” she said. “If Parliament backs a deal, Britain can turn a corner.”
Downing Street said yesterday that Mrs May had been in contact with her EU counterparts over the Christmas break in a bid to improve her deal.
However, No10 conceded there was “still more work to do” on the controversial issue of the Irish backstop.
Mr Johnson also suggested that Britain was lacking a leader. “I have been all over Wales, I have been all over Ireland and Scotland and also England and I feel like the country is in need of leadership,” he told the BBC.
Mr Trump said in November that Mrs May’s agreement with Brussels “sounds like a great deal for the EU” as he cast doubt on whether a future trade deal with the US would be possible. Mr Johnson said the US president remained hopeful a “quick, very massive bilateral trade deal” could be agreed which would take Britain “way into an exciting future”.
But Mr Johnson said the UK was “still going through the stages of deciding where exactly the country is going” with regard to Brexit.
“If it goes in a way that allows these kinds of agreements to occur then I think they will be very positive in the President’s eyes,” he said.
Asked directly if he believed a deal would be possible under the current terms of Brexit, Mr Johnson said: “It doesn’t look like it would be possible.”
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson also said it “would be great” if Mr Trump’s postponed state visit finally went ahead after the UK leaves the EU in March this year.
He said: “I think the president would be in favour of it and looking forward to it because that was mentioned when he was over here.
“So yeah, if we can do that, that would be a big positive.”
Downing Street said both the UK and US “want an ambitious trade agreement” after Brexit but would not be drawn on Mr Johnson’s claim that a deal would likely not be possible under Mrs May’s strategy.
Asked if Mr Johnson was wrong, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “Work is already under way in discussing our future trading relationship with the US through our joint working group, which has met five times so far.
“We have both had public consultations on this. It will be a priority for us once we leave the European Union.”