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Sir Nigel Sheinwald said that a series of controversial interventions by the US president in British issues meant that the remote prospect of a quick transatlantic deal, heralded by pro-Brexit cabinet members, should now be “put out of our minds” for good.
His intervention comes as a new poll highlights the British public’s opposition to Trump in the wake of his decision to cancel a trip to the UK, with fewer than a fifth of voters (18%) believing he is a friend of Britain.
Almost three-quarters of voters (72%) also believe that the US president is a risk to international stability, according to a new Opinium poll for the Observer. A similar proportion (71%) believe he is untrustworthy. Two in five voters believe that Trump should not be visiting Britain at all.
The dim view taken by the British public over the outspoken president comes after Whitehall insiders suggested that the clashes he has had with Britain over the last year contributed to his decision to cancel a visit to open the new US embassy in London. A mass protest had also been expected during Trump’s visit, which would have marked a further embarrassment for the president. [...]
Trump confirmed on Twitter last week that he had cancelled a trip to open the new US embassy in Vauxhall because he disagreed with the process of moving it from Mayfair to an “off location” south of the Thames. While he blamed the Obama administration, the deal was signed under George W Bush’s presidency. In an extraordinary intervention, the US embassy itself took the step of releasing a detailed statement correcting the president. The highly unusual move is a sign of the tensions between Trump and his international diplomats.
Sheinwald, the British ambassador to the US from 2007 to 2012, said he had always believed that a swift trade deal with the US was unlikely, but that the latest episode should end hopes by some Brexiters that it could be done by Brexit day in March 2019.
“Given that Trump’s attitude to the UK seems to have changed for the worst over the last year, at least in a superficial and tonal way, I think that takes out another of the arguments for thinking that this would be a great positive for the UK in the post-Brexit world,” he said. “It will be important for us to get a deal with the Americans, but it will take a long time.
“If you’re a Liam Fox [the international trade secretary], who has staked so much on the American deal being easy and within our reach around the same time as Brexit, then the way in which the bilateral relationship has atrophied and the tone has changed in the last year since May’s first visit is quite a big blow.
“It means we should put out of our minds the idea that just around the corner when we leave the EU there is a magical deal with the US that is going to solve all our trade and industrial problems. Absolutely not.” [...]