Ken Clarke: Theresa May and Donald Trump are no Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan – and post-Brexit freedom is laughable

Theresa May and Donald Trump cannot replicate the special relationship enjoyed by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan despite the comparison being “flogged to death”, according to former Conservative Chancellor Ken Clarke, as he cast doubt on the UK securing a successful trade deal with the US.

Just days after he was the only Tory rebel to vote against the Government’s Article 50 Bill, Mr Clarke has issued a fresh rebuke to the Prime Minister, describing her view that the UK will enjoy a new-found freedom outside of the EU as “laughable”.

Mr Trump is a “dyed-in-the-wool protectionist” who will stick to his mantra of putting America first, rather than improving trade with the UK, the Tory grandee told The Independent.

In a blistering assessment, he described the UK’s current position as a “shambles” and a “nightmare” that has only been made worse by Mr Trump’s controversial actions since taking office.

During Ms May’s trip to Washington last month, Mr Trump said he wanted their relations to be stronger than the political romance enjoyed by Mr Reagan and Mrs Thatcher – a line repeated in briefings by Number 10’s spinners.

“I think we’ve flogged that to death really,” said Mr Clarke. “Donald Trump is not Ronald Reagan and she is not Margaret Thatcher.

“I’m prepared to give her a chance. She was the only contender to be prime minister in what was a ridiculous contest last year and I remind myself that it’s not her fault that we have such a shambles.

“She has taken over a nightmare situation. That Trump thing has predictably become complicated already, once he started doing the bizarre things that he has started doing.”

Ms May’s trip ended with a triumphant announcement that the Government had set up a new working group to lay the ground for trade liberalisation with the US, with an eye on signing a trade deal as soon as possible after Brexit.

But Mr Clarke warned the Prime Minister not to expect Mr Trump, or the Republican Party who control both Houses of Congress, to give the UK a deal that can replenish all lost trade from leaving the EU.

He said: “Trump is a dyed-in-the-wool protectionist on a scale we haven’t seen in America since before the Second World War, and Congress is not easy, as we discovered when we were trying to negotiate the EU/US TTIP deal. It is full of vested interests.

“‘Buy American’ is a very strong slogan for American congressmen. I don’t think it has been weakened by the arrival of President Trump.”

He added: “The most serious problem is that we are trying to pretend that in this new and exciting global world where we’re going to have more trading networks and alliances than we had before, we are going to make all the rules ourselves and we are not going to agree to be bound by any of them.

“Which is slightly laughable. We better leave the United Nations and Nato and lots of other organisations, because they involve you committing yourself to international rules.”

His comments come after Mr Clarke told the House of Commons his party has now become “mildly anti-immigrant” to an extent that would even amaze Enoch Powell, who famously made a speech claiming immigration would lead to “rivers of blood” in the UK.

Ms May has repeated her intention to seal both a withdrawal deal and a new free trade agreement with the European Union within the two year period allowed by the Article 50 process, despite both key European and British figures suggesting it may be impossible.

Mr Clarke joined their rank, saying Ms May had “not the slightest chance” of getting everything that she needed before the Article 50 deadline passes in 2019. Nodding towards pending French, Dutch and German elections he said: “You can’t have any serious negotiations with serious governments when they are in the middle of an election campaign, you just can’t.”

On Ms May’ plan to trigger Article 50 in March, he went on: “It’s an entirely self-imposed date, pulled out of the air because some press officer thought it would give some sense of urgency in some speech or other.

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“Now it’s become an article of faith that we have got to invoke it by March.

“They are doing it to try and silence the conspiracy theorists in the right-wing newspapers who are convinced that all people like me are doing is trying to delay it. We’re not going to delay it. There is a perfectly secure majority between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn that she can get for leaving the EU.”

He argued that the Government has gone to “enormous lengths” to avoid any sort of Parliamentary control over the Brexit process, particularly citing Ms May’s “quite extraordinary” attempt to trigger Article 50 using Royal Prerogative powers.

At least Tony Blair understood “to the last minute” before invading Iraq, that he needed to get Parliamentary approval to legitimise his misadventure in the Middle East, Mr Clarke said.

The Rushcliffe MP went on: “The Government, they are suspicious they are going to get drawn into detailed debates in which they are not clear what their position is, they are uncertain that they have got a majority on key things.

“Most MPs have signed up to the idea that they are bound by the referendum, so unfortunately their fears are inaccurate.”

He also accused the British press of peddling xenophobic “propaganda” against the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, ahead of critical withdrawal talks.

Mr Clarke told The Independent that Mr Barnier had been depicted as a “big bad wolf” merely because he is foreign and has a French-sounding name.

He said: “I found Barnier a perfectly reasonable guy. He’s very European, he’s more European than he is French.

“He’s an experienced guy, a tough negotiator, but I get no sense that he is remotely hostile to the United Kingdom.”

Asked about his representation in the British press, he said: “Well he’s foreign, isn’t he. He’s got a French name. So he must be a big bad wolf.

“He’s not the big bad wolf, he’s a perfectly serious and sensible diplomat.”

Commenting on reports more generally that European politicians want to “punish” the UK for leaving the EU, he said: “I’ve not met a single European politician who wants to punish the UK.

“That is the spin of triumphant Eurosceptic journalists, who want to continue to stoke up the animosity their readers feel towards continental Europe.”

He also rubbished the idea that the Government will need so-called Henry VIII powers in its Great Repeal Bill, which would after Brexit allow ministers to ditch key parts of what had been European law – including important rights and standards.

He said: “Most of the regulations we are talking about have been supported by British governments, indeed most have been urged by British governments.

“We are quite keen on product quality, on animal welfare, on environmental standards on health and safety and so on. Which is why nobody can think of one that they want to repeal.

“The idea that when they think of one they can rush it through using a Henry VIII clause is absurd.”

Mr Clarke served as John Major’s Chancellor and was credited with setting the UK on a path to recovery in the early 1990s before handing Tony Blair’s Labour government a “golden legacy”.

Looking ahead he said the focus on Brexit could be distracting the country from its deeper economic problems, which he argued were still gripping the country from the 2008 crash.

“We are maintaining growth, but it is far too dependent on extraordinary monetary policy, with artificially low interest rates, free money, central banks pumping money into the system because politicians won’t engage in any of the structural reforms required in most European countries,” he said.

“I’m glad to say we are maintaining reasonable growth, but it is entirely dependent on consumer demand and we are seeing a rapid rise in consumer debt. So we face a very uncertain future.”