UK 'top of the queue' for post-Brexit trade deal, key Donald Trump adviser says
2 min read
Donald Trump’s national security adviser has said the UK will be “at the top of the queue” for a trade deal after Brexit, as he downplayed fears over a no-deal scenario.
John Bolton told Sky News: "People who worry about the United Kingdom crashing out of the European Union - they are going to crash right into the United States.
"We are standing here waiting to make a trade deal with a UK independent of the EU."
Mr Bolton also affirmed the US President's eagerness for a bilateral trade deal with an “independent Britain” in an interview with Reuters.
He said: “It's what the people voted for in 2016, and when they get out, whether it's now, April 12 or later, we'll be standing right there waiting for them.”
Mr Bolton’s remarks are the latest in a series of recent interventions on Brexit from the top of the White House.
President Trump told reporters on Thursday that he wished Theresa May well after she promised to resign if her Brexit deal passed the Commons in time for an orderly departure on May 22.
"I'll tell you what, she's strong, she's tough, and she's in there fighting,” Mr Trump said, in an apparent departure from comments made earlier this month saying he could not believe “how badly” talks were going after Mrs May “didn’t listen” to his ideas on negotiations.
Last week Mr Bolton accused British politicians of failing to “give effect” to the referendum result on the same day that an article by Donald Trump Jr criticising Mrs May and “Brussels elites” appeared in the Daily Telegraph.
“A process that should have taken only a few short months has become a years-long stalemate, leaving the British people in limbo,” he said.
The prime minister has previously stated President Trump advised her to "sue the EU - not go into negotiations".
Mr Trump said he was also working on a US-EU trade deal ahead of a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office earlier this month.
Mr Varadkar added: "I think it will be a few years until the United Kingdom sorts itself out, but in the meantime the European Union is available to talk trade with the U.S."
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