Sunday Times: “When Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, praised Britain’s newly toughened stance on the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei last week, he did so in a way that has uncovered one of the secret truths at the heart of Boris Johnson’s government.”
“‘Well done,’ said Pompeo, in the manner of a teacher planting a gold star on the work of a favoured pupil whose recent lapses of discipline have been rectified after a detention. This display was too much for one minister. ‘It would make things much easier,’ he said, ‘if Trump doesn’t win re-election.’ Privately, many agree. The first clue that this view has support in No 10 came last August, when Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, visited Washington to discuss a trade deal with the president’s men Robert Lighthizer and Wilbur Ross.”
“You might have expected the Brexiteers in Downing Street to applaud her cheerleading for a deal. Instead, Truss’s team were told to shut her up. ‘Unhelpful,’ the spin doctors muttered. One adviser recalled: ‘Boris was trying to distance himself from Trump.’ No 10’s private polling showed little appetite among voters for American chlorinated chicken, still less for the president himself. Last week it became clear that a deal is off the table until after November’s presidential election.”