The Prime Minister has defended the withdrawal agreement, insisting it would pave the way for a trade pacts with nations around the world because under its terms the whole of the UK would leave customs unions. But in an extraordinary intervention just weeks after Mr Johnson clinched the last-minute deal with the Europeans, the US President revealed his distaste for the package during a phone interview with his friend Nigel Farage on LBC radio station. Mr Trump predicted a “ridiculous” situation further down the line if Britain left the bloc with the revised Brexit deal.
He said: “We want to do trade with the UK and they want to do trade with us and to be honest with you, this deal, under certain aspects of the deal you can’t do it, you can’t do it, you can’t trade.
“We can’t make a trade deal with the UK because I think we can do many times the numbers that we’re doing right now and certainly much bigger numbers than you are doing under the European Union.”
He added: “I know that Boris wants to be very careful with it.
“Yeah, because under certain ways we’re precluded. Which would be ridiculous.”
The Brexit Party leader echoed his disapproval, saying Mr Johnson’s deal amounted to nothing more than a reheat of Theresa May’s unpopular agreement, thrice rejected by Parliament.
After the conversation was aired, a Number 10 spokesman said: “Under this new deal the whole of the UK will leave the EU customs union, which means we can strike our own free trade deals around the world from which every part of the UK will benefit.”
READ MORE:Polling guru John Curtice dismisses Nigel Farage’s threat to Boris
Washington has in the past warned Britain that keeping close ties with the EU after Brexit might prevent it from striking a future bilateral trade agreement with their American counterparts.
In a separate interview with ITV, Mr Johnson was asked whether he would consider an offer of support in the winter election fromMr Farage.
A non-aggression pact between the two men was suggested by Mr Trump who referred to the pair as “two brilliant people”.
Mr Johnson said: “What we’ve got is a fantastic deal that nobody thought we could get.
“As soon as we get back in the middle of December, we can put that deal through.”
Mr Trump said the NHS was off the table despite Jeremy Corbyn’s protesting that it would be included in future trade talks.
The Republican blamed the Labour leader for spreading the misinformation, saying “Corbyn put that out there”.
