LONDON — Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain’s Brexit Party, is planning to start his own trade talks with the White House amid frustration that the British government has let the process stall.
“If the British government is not prepared to do it, at least allow me to get a group of people to start making some public arguments,” he said.
In an exclusive interview, Farage told the Washington Examiner he had decided to launch his own initiative after meeting President Trump last week in London and learning that American preparations for talks were already far advanced.
A deal with the U.S. is seen as critical to the British economy once it makes its much delayed exit from the European Union. Farage, 55, said he had begun organizing a team to meet Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative.
Britain had been due to leave the EU on March 29, but Prime Minister Theresa May was unable to navigate her proposed exit deal — setting out the terms of withdrawal and the future U.K. relationship with Europe — through Parliament. On Friday, she stepped down as Conservative Party leader and will resign as prime minister once her successor is chosen.
As things stand, Britain will leave at the end of October with or without a deal.
Amid such confusion and paralysis, Farage has seen his political stock rise. His Brexit Party emerged victorious from recent European elections, winning more than 30% of the vote and beating out both the governing Conservative and opposition Labour parties.
He said his meeting last week with Trump and Woody Johnson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, left him convinced Washington had a strong advantage in trade talks.
Lighthizer’s office has published an 18-page summary of intentions and held public hearings.
In contrast, said Farage, the British government had offered no indication about what such a deal might look like.
The problem, he said, was that Brexit was being offered in negative terms, as an absence of Europe, rather than in positive terms and as an opportunity for Britain. A negotiation would give the British public a sense of what was possible, he added.
“What I’m looking for here is a counterweight argument,” he said. “I get a wall of silence from our trade department.
“So if I can get some names involved who can come back and say, ‘Well, we’ve looked at the American proposals. On the whole they’re good. … We’re not happy with this bit and this bit … but we have got a negotiation going on,’ maybe we can look at some of this in a much more positive light.”
Trump and Farage have been political bedfellows since the 2016 election when the Brexit vote foreshadowed the rise of a populist candidate in the U.S.
Before arriving for his state visit, Trump himself suggested Farage should join Britain’s Brexit negotiations.
And, once on British soil, he underscored the value of a trade deal to both sides.
“The United States is committed to a phenomenal trade deal — there is tremendous potential in that trade deal, probably two and even three times what we are doing now,” he said during a joint news conference with May.
