Britain will not have the same prominence in Washington it has been previously used to be because it is “less useful to the US administration”, a former senior diplomat and crossbench peer has claimed.
Peter Ricketts, who has spent 40 years defending Britain’s interests in the world, believes our interest in the world will be severely diminished because of Brexit. And he warns this will worsen if Donald Trump loses the next election.
“When Biden looks towards Europe, he will see Paris and Berlin more as the centre of gravity of what’s really important for America in Europe, both economically and in security terms, and Britain will be seen rather as an outlier, rather outside the mainstream of Europe,” he explained to Politco.
“There will continue to be an important bilateral relationship on defence and security of course, but in other areas, Britain will not have the same prominence it has been used to having in Washington because, frankly, Britain is less useful to the U.S. administration.”
He believes that there will be a “thin” deal between the UK and EU at the end of talks, but that it will miss out key elements for bilateral cooperation on things like security and defence.
“You can be sure that any deal that the Johnson government signs will be trumpeted as a great victory and it will be attributed to the tough negotiating tactic that has been followed,” he said. “In practice, I think the EU has been largely setting the agenda through these negotiations, which is partly why Britain has lost reputation as a result.”
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