Mike Pence: U.S. ‘Stands with the UK’ over Brexit

US Vice President Mike Pence has met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and said the US “supports the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union”.

Sitting down to talk with the Mr Johnson in the prime minister’s residence of 10 Downing Street on Thursday, Mr Pence said he wanted to pass on greetings from the President and said that the U.S. leader “wanted to convey that the U.S. is willing and able to strike a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom”.

Prime Minister Johnson replied that was “fantastic”, and said that he hoped to be able to lift trade barriers between the two countries — which currently exist because Britain is a member of the EU’s Customs Union and Single Market — on British meat, saying that Americans are not able to eat “British lamb or beef or haggis from Scotland”.

“We know you guys are pretty tough negotiators but we will make sure that a free trade deal works for all of us,” the prime minister said.

Vice President Pence travelled to the UK after trips to Ireland and Iceland to meet with the countries’ respective heads of government. During his trip to Dublin, Mr Pence urged the Republic of Ireland and the EU to renegotiate the withdrawal treaty and its Irish backstop, which could lock the UK in regulatory alignment with the EU, preventing trade deals.

Speaking to media in Iceland on Wednesday, the vice president said: “Make no mistake about it, America respects the sovereignty of the United Kingdom, respects the will of the people of the United Kingdom and we respect and support the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.

“And we will continue to express that support and hope to see the European Union and the United Kingdom come together around that negotiating table that Prime Minister Johnson spoke of just a few days ago and reach an agreement that will meet the needs of the aspirations of the people of the United Kingdom and also provide for an orderly Brexit.”

The solution to the Brexit issue is simple, we just needs to find one nation in the EU that refuses the extension, and the UK leaves on the 31.