Stop being 'defeatist' about Brexit and be inspired by Trump, Britons told by US ambassador

Theresa May should take “inspiration” from Donald Trump in the Brexit negotiations and cast off Britain's "defeatist" attitude, according to the American ambassador to London.

Interviewed for a new Channel 4 documentary, Woody Johnson questioned why the UK was "so nervous" about the prospects of leaving the EU, a process that in his view need not present a "major challenge".

His comments come soon after Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, told a group of Tory donors that if Donald Trump was in charge of Brexit “actually you might get somewhere”.

It came as Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, insisted that the Treasury was not the "enemy of Brexit" but rather the “champion of prosperity for the British people outside the EU”.

Mr Hammond also accused Brussels of making a land grab for the City and harbouring an "ambition to force the location of business into the EU".

On Thursday Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, admitted that hardened criminals from EU countries could be given the right to live and work in the UK because EU rules prevent the Home Office carrying out blanket criminal records checks in foreign countries.

Brexiteers claimed the immigration deal for EU citizens living in Britain, unveiled by Mr Javid, was too generous as it emerged that almost 4 million people could apply for so-called settled status - 600,000 more than previously thought. They will also be able to bring family members including boyfriends and girlfriends of more than two years’ standing.

Mr Johnson – who took up his post last November - said nervousness about Brexit had surprised him, adding that “as an American I’m just not used to hearing that”.

He said: “The thing I want to get at more than anything else is an attitude that I feel I don’t see enough in this country and that is a confidence for where you are heading, light at the end of the tunnel with Brexit.

“The British have always been experts and great business people, great business minds, so to see this defeatist attitude towards Brexit is a bit sorrowing for me, when I read nothing in the papers about anybody having a positive attitude towards Brexit or towards the future.

“As an American I’m just not used to hearing that. Don’t be pessimistic, have faith, how can a country with this great a history, this great a language, this great a legal system, this great a presence and not be successful?”

Turning to the US President, Mr Johnson said: “When you look at Donald Trump and what he has done, maybe take some inspiration and actually do some of the things he has done.

“I mean he turned something round in one year, he has got three per cent growth. We had a point and a half last year, this is three per cent - that is trillions of dollars. Two million new jobs. Records set in each month. African American employment at an all-time high.

“I’m super confident about the relationship between the US and the UK. I’m very confident about our future together, I’m very confident about what happens after Brexit.

“I don’t think that is a major challenge, why are we so nervous? We don’t have the confidence in ourselves? We go the best people right here to do it. That is my take on my first months here.”

Officials in the UK and Washington are just starting to plan Mr Trump’s overnight stay in the UK on July 13 next month, when he will meet the Queen and Mrs May, the Prime Minister.

But Mr Johnson is overheard during the new documentary discussing staging Mr Trump’s first state visit to the UK with Sir Mark Sedwill, the UK’s National Security Adviser in May or July next year.

During a conversation at the embassy’s opening earlier this year, Mr Johnson asked Sir Mark when he would like Mr Trump to visit. Sir Mark replied: “Either in late May or in July, that would be a state visit.”

Sir Mark then added: “Let's plan for a series of visits in his first term. Let’s do it one by one. When do you want a state visit, when do you want other visits?”

After the ambassador suggested “a state visit may be next Spring”, Sir Mark said – wrongly – that “next year is the 75th anniversary of VE Day”, which actually falls in 2020.

Sir Mark said: “That would be worth having him here for, the key thing is getting him here.” Mr Johnson replied: “Let's get him here once. Once you get it then you know what you are dealing with.”

The US ambassador urges the security adviser not to let "fear" about the visit "hold you back".

Sir Mark added: “So, I think for him to be the first big visit after Brexit ... This is a Brexit President.”

Meanwhile Jean Claude-Juncker, the European Commission President, said in a speech that Britain outside the EU was a country that does not “yet know that they are small”.

Inside the American Embassy is on Channel 4 at 10pm on Monday