Historian Sir Simon Schama has warned that Donald Trump is a president ‘ready to pounce’ in the event of a no-deal Brexit. as he criticised the US ambassador.
Speaking on Sky News during their coverage of the president’s state visit to the UK, the historian said that the government is taking a “friendly stance” like with a “hyena”.
But he warned that Trump is ready – and it risks destroying sectors of the economy here when it happened.
Sir Simon said: “What we are doing is trying to be friendly with the hyena.
“Of course, Donald Trump wants a no deal Brexit because he is ready to pounce. They are ready to pounce in terms of destroying the agricultural sector of the United Kingdom.
“All those regulations and high standards, not even talking about chlorinated chicken but genetically modified foods.
“All those barriers will come down including the National Health Service.
“Woody Johnson, the owner of the most pathetically incompetent American Football team in the United States, the New York Jets, so much for his business acumen.
“He made it absolutely clear yesterday, as he put it, everything including the NHS would be on the table.”
It follows US ambassador Woody Johnson saying: “The entire economy, everything that is traded, would be on the table” and that included the NHS.
He claimed that consumers would still have a choice of whether or not to buy US produce: “If they don’t like it,” he said of chlorinated chicken, “they don’t have to buy it.”
Ben Bradshaw MP, a former environment minister and leading supporter of People’s Vote, warned consumer rights would be at risk with a US-UK deal.
He said: “The US president knows there is no chance of British consumers voluntarily choosing to buy chlorinated chicken from Chicago, Cornish pasties from Pittsburgh or Scotch Whisky from Wisconsin – so he plans to take away our rights to even know that is what we are being sold.
“Done properly trade deals take years because they require a complex trade-off of rights and regulations to ensure both sides are beneficiaries. But Trump wants to bounce us in a hasty America First deal.
“He needs to hear us loud and clear: there is no mandate for a no deal crash out Brexit. We do not consent to selling our rights to him in return for some chemically-cleaned chicken or anything else he has to offer.
“Instead, MPs from all sides of the House of Commons and the people of Britain will resist him. And we are determined that even Trump will hear our ever-louder demands for Brexit to be put back to the people in a democratic final say referendum.”
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