While Britain remains entangled in a promise to leave the European Union without a workable plan to do so, the White House says President Donald Trump is “eager to cut a bilateral trade deal with an independent Britain.”
Hours after British lawmakers rejected a Brexit plan for a third time Friday, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton told reporters that when Britain extricates itself from the European Union, the United States will “be standing right there waiting for them.”
He said Trump empathized with embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May, and that he would like to “reassure the people of the United Kingdom how strongly we feel that we want to be there for them.”
Friday marked the third time Britain’s House of Commons rejected a withdrawal plan backed by May in a vote on the day Britain originally was scheduled to leave the European Union. The vote was 344-286.
In response, Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, has called a European Council meeting for April 10. The EU has given Britain until April 12 to let members know what it plans to do.
Britons voted nearly three years ago to leave the EU. But as last week’s scheduled departure date grew near, so did turmoil over terms of the deal May negotiated with EU leaders.
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