'He can't get it through': Experts clash over whether Trump can get free UK trade deal

28 October 2020, 21:38

James Delingpole and Simon Marks disagree on Trump giving UK deal

Experts have clashed on Iain Dale's Cross Question on whether Trump or Biden would be best in getting the UK a free trade deal with the US.

James Delingpole, from Breitbart News, said he was "surprised" by suggestions that Trump's Democrat rival Joe Biden would be more likely to give the UK a free trade deal.

"I think Biden is part of that globalist, pro-EU faction which will want to do what all the Ey globalists and all the European Union wants to do which is to punish the Britain for its temerity in seeking independence from the shackles of the EU.

"So I don't think he'll be inclined to give us any kind of trade deal any time soon.

"President Trump I take him at his word, he clearly loves Britain because of his Scottish mother and his golf courses. I think sometimes we don't reciprocate the love as we ought, our Prime Ministers tend to be much more stand offish to President Trump than he is to them".

But Simon Marks, LBC's Washington correspondent, pointed out that Trump can't give the UK a free trade deal, as the decision lies with Congress who can ratify a trade deal.

He also said that Biden was a man who was "steeped in the bilateral relationship between the UK and the US".

"He can't get you a trade deal because he can't get it through Congress. The reality is that we talk here like Joe Biden is some unknown figure in terms of the transatlantic relationship.

"Joe Biden as early as 1982 was pulling Margaret Thatcher over the line here by backing her decision to go to war in the Falklands at a time when that was facing enormous amounts of hostility on Capitol Hill."

Watch the full exchange in the video at the top of the page