UK ‘first in line’ for trade deal with US after Brexit: Bolton
The UK will be “first in line” for a trade deal after leaving the EU, according to one of Donald Trump’s most senior advisers.
John Bolton, who is in London for meetings with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said Trump would “enthusiastically” support a no-deal Brexit, while ensuring trade deals were quick to follow. They would be carried out a sector-by-sector basis, he said, leading with manufacturing.
A “series of agreements” could be struck “very quickly, very straight-forwardly”, Bolton said. “To be clear, in the Trump administration, Britain’s constantly at the front of the trade queue, or line as we say.
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“We want to move very quickly. We wish we could have moved further along in this with the prior government.”
However financial services could be one of the last to secure.
“Both President Trump and I were leavers before there were leavers”, the National Security Adviser added, attacking the European Union for its treatment of the UK since the 2016 referendum.
Bolton said: “The fashion in the European Union when the people vote the wrong way from the way that the elites want to go is to make the peasants vote again and again until they get it right.”
It was “hard to imagine” people in the UK did not know “what was at stake” when they voted originally, he added.
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A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister joined a meeting at Downing Street today between senior officials and US National Security Adviser John Bolton.
“They discussed the close UK-US trading relationship and our shared commitment to an ambitious free trade agreement once the UK leaves the EU. They also spoke about Brexit and a range of other issues – including Iran, Hong Kong and 5G.”
Main image: Getty