UK 'first in line' for trade deal post Brexit, insists US security chief John Bolton

Following the meeting, Mr Bolton, one of the President’s closest advisers, suggested that a US-UK trade agreement could be done on a gradual “sector by sector” basis, starting with manufacturing and car-making where the two countries might easily seal agreements and working out more complicated areas later on.

He brushed aside concerns that Congress could block a trade deal over the consequences a no-deal Brexit could have on Ireland.

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Mr Bolton’s declaration on a future trade deal came as pollsters suggested a majority of the British public think Mr Johnson should suspend Parliament in order to push through Brexit.

Following his Downing St meeting, Mr Bolton said: "The main purpose of the visit really is to convey President Trump's desire to see a successful exit from the European Union for the United Kingdom on October 31, to offer to be of help in any way that we can and to express his hope we can have a fully comprehensive bilateral trade agreement with the United Kingdom as soon as possible."

He added: "To be clear, in the Trump administration, Britain's constantly at the front of the trade queue, or line as we say."

This contrasted with the famous line from Barack Obama, the previous President, who, in the run-up to the EU referendum, suggested that if Britain left the EU it would be at the back of the queue in terms of a trade deal.

Mr Bolton said the US could do a trade deal with the UK "in pieces" and concentrate on areas, like manufacturing and the car-making industry, they can agree on first.

"You could do it sector by sector, you could do it in a modular fashion in other words. You could carve out some areas where it might be possible to reach a bilateral agreement very quickly, very straightforwardly.

"That would then lock that in and when the other areas that might be more difficult were concluded later, you could combine it in one overall agreement. So, the objective is either one document or a series of agreements that would be comprehensive.

"In order to expedite things and enhance the possibility for increasing the trade and investments between the two countries, doing it in a sector-by-sector approach or some other approach that the trade negotiators might agree with, we are open to that."

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He added: "The idea of doing it in pieces rather than waiting for the whole thing is not unprecedented. Here we see the importance and urgency of doing as much as we can agree on as rapidly as possible because of the impending October 31 exit date."

Asked whether piecemeal trade agreements like this are allowed under World Trade Organisation rules, Mr Bolton said: "Our trade negotiators seem to think it is."

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The national security adviser also attacked the EU and said the UK's decision to leave the EU should be respected.

"We see a successful exit as being very much in our interests. Britain’s success in exiting the EU is a statement about democratic rule. The fashion in the European Union when the people vote the wrong way from the way that the elites want to go, is to make the peasants vote again and again until they get it right."

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Mr Bolton's remarks came as a new ComRes poll for The Daily Telegraph found 54 per cent of the public agreed that the Prime Minister "needs to deliver Brexit by any means, including suspending Parliament if necessary, in order to prevent MPs from stopping it".

Many MPs have expressed outrage at the idea of proroguing Parliament in order to avoid a no-deal scenario being halted by the Commons.

The poll of 2,011 British adults also, however, found 51 per cent of respondents agreed that "Brexit should be halted if problems over the Northern Ireland border threaten to split the Union".

According to the figures, 88 per cent of respondents felt Parliament was "out of touch" with the British public and 89 per cent felt MPs "ignore the wishes of voters and push their own agendas" on Brexit.