The UK has been warned that it might not secure a post-Brexit trade deal with America regardless of who wins the presidential election.
Former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband said that a deal with Boris Johnson’s government is just as unlikely if Donald Trump is returned to the White House.
He refuted suggestions that the US would be keen on a deal pointing out that “compared to China and the European Union we’re small”, and adding that “EU-UK trade is six times the level of UK-US trade”.
“My own view is that neither a Biden administration nor a Trump administration will do a deal.”
He said that Trump’s administration would not be able to “reconcile the interests of US agriculture with that of British consumers, especially with the extra safeguards the government just announced in the House of Commons.”
He added that Trump’s foreign policy is now “out of kilter with a Brexit-supporting government in the UK”.
But he said that a Biden administration also “isn’t particularly interested in a UK-US trade deal” either.
He added: “Their priorities, they’ve got many other priorities, from Covid to climate change so I don’t think it will be their priority.”
Ministers in the UK were said to be “frantically repositioning” itself towards Biden over the possibility of Trump losing the vote.
Miliband, however, said on “issues like Iran, climate change, even engaging with China there is quite a lot of room for a Biden administration to work with the UK if the UK can sort out its relations with the EU”.
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