Britain Front and Centre

The UK is "first in line" for a trade deal with the US, President Trump's National Security Adviser has said. 

John Bolton said the US supported a no-deal Brexit and added that Washington would propose an accelerated series of trade deals.

According to Mr Bolton, deals could be done on a "sector-by-sector" basis, with an agreement on manufacturing being agreed first.

His comments came after meeting Prime Minister Boris Johnson at No 10.

According to Mr Bolton, a bilateral agreement or "series of agreements" could be carved out "very quickly, very straight-forwardly".

While saying that "both President Trump and I were leavers before there were leavers", he added that a trade deal for financial services and agriculture would not be the first to be agreed.

The nay sayers point out that Congress will veto any deal, if a no deal Brexit negatively impacts the Good Friday Agreement. The fact is that if there is a no deal Brexit there will be no negative impact on the GFA, because neither the UK nor Ireland will impose a hard border.

Additionally, and this is a point wilfully ignored, the "troubles" were not caused by a "hard border". Security checkpoints etc were put in place as a result of the "troubles" in order to stem the flow of arms and terrorists across the border, not to disrupt trade.