Donald Trump today calls on Britain to send Nigel Farage to negotiate with Brussels and pursue a no-deal Brexit if the EU refuses to give Britain what it wants.
In an interview with The Sunday Times before his state visit to the UK this week, the American president said the next prime minister should refuse to pay the £39bn Brexit divorce bill and “walk away” if Brussels does not bow to Britain’s demands.
Trump said that it was not too late for Britain to follow his advice and “sue” the EU to give Britain greater “ammunition” in the talks.
And he vowed to “go all out” to secure a free trade deal between Britain and America within months of Brexit taking place to make up for lost trade with the EU.
The president is due to meet the Queen tomorrow, enjoy a state banquet, hold talks with Theresa May and attend D-Day commemorations in Portsmouth before leaving on Wednesday evening for further ceremonies in France.
But in a dramatic break with diplomatic convention he launched a controversial foray into British politics, calling on the government to stop delaying Brexit and signalling that the “excellent” Boris Johnson should be prime minister.
In the interview, Trump also:
● Said he would have “to know” Jeremy Corbyn before authorising US intelligence to share its most sensitive secrets with a hard-left Labour government
● Told the Labour leader that he should “get along with the United States” if he wants Britain to continue to benefit from US military and intelligence support
● And warned ministers they must “be careful” not to jeopardise intelligence sharing by letting Chinese firm Huawei into Britain’s 5G mobile phone network.
Trump made clear that he believes Britain must leave the EU this year. “They gotta get it done,” he said from the White House Oval Office. “They have got to get the deal closed.”
With Tory leadership candidates divided over whether to pursue a no-deal Brexit, Trump backed Johnson, Dominic Raab, Sajid Javid and Esther McVey, who have all said the UK must leave, with or without a deal, on October 31. “If they don’t get what they want I would walk away,” Trump said. “If you don’t get the deal you want, if you don’t get a fair deal, then you walk away.”
In a move that will unnerve even those Conservative contenders who want a hard Brexit, Trump said it was “a mistake” for the Tories not to involve Farage, the Brexit Party leader, in the negotiations and that his success in the recent European elections meant he had earned his place.
“I like Nigel a lot. He has a lot to offer,” Trump said. “He is a very smart person. They won’t bring him in. Think how well they would do if they did. They just haven’t figured that out yet.”
The president said Britain should also withhold the £39bn payment, around $50bn, to gain leverage. “If I were them I wouldn’t pay $50bn,” he said. “That is me. I would not pay, that is a tremendous number.”
Just days before his final meeting with May, Trump was withering about the prime minister’s handling of the negotiations saying she left the EU with “very little to lose” and “no downside”.
Trump confirmed that he told May to sue the EU to give Britain greater leverage. “What I would do is, for those mistakes made by the EU that cost the UK a lot of money and a lot of harm, I would have put that on the table, whether it is in the form of litigation or in the form of a request. But they chose not to do that. It’s very hard for the UK to get a good deal when they go into the negotiation that way.”
Trump pledged that doing a trade deal with America would more than compensate the UK for any lost trade with the EU and vowed to move things forward during his trip this week.
He said one could be concluded “much quicker” than a year. “I would go all out,” he said. “It would be a great, a great advantage to the UK. A tremendous advantage.
“We have the potential to be an incredible trade partner with the UK. We have tremendous potential to make up more than the difference. We will be talking to them about that. One of the advantages of Brexit is the fact that now you can deal with the No 1 economy in the world by far.”
