An MSP who campaigned for a Leave vote in the EU referendum has revealed Washington officials area backing a free trade deal between the US and Britain.
Conservative Ross Thomson jetted across the Atlantic as part of the “future leaders programme” – run by the US Embassy in London – and is touring various American cities.
As part of the two-week visit the 28-year-old, who is still an Aberdeen city councillor, said the Brexit vote had been raised at every meeting he had attended.
He said: “I am spending two weeks visiting cities across the US, including Washington DC, Denver, San Diego and Minneapolis.
“The first reaction from the US officials has been one of absolute fascination about Brexit, the rise of Theresa May as our new prime minister, as well as Nicola Sturgeon’s push for a second independence referendum.
“In fact, the UK vote to leave the European Union has been brought up at almost every meeting we have had.
“In a meeting with the state department, officials were explicit that our relationship with the US will only deepen as we explore new opportunities to work more closely together.
“We met with the transatlantic business council who advised that there is ‘a tonne of support for a UK-US free trade deal’ in congress and that any such deal would pass easily.”
But last night Gordon MP Alex Salmond, the SNP’s foreign affairs spokesman in the Commons, said Mr Thomson should speak to north-east businesses about the “uncertainty” caused by the Brexit vote.
He said: “I don’t find it at all reassuring that a newly-elected MSP is saying he is making trade deals when in reality he can’t.
“It should be truly embarrassing for people like him who argued for Brexit when it was patently obvious that there was no plan in place about what to do when they got it.”
