A US Senator has said that America will prioritise doing a trade deal with the EU over the UK once Brexit has happened.
Democratic Senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy is currently on a visit to the UK, Northern Ireland and Ireland to report back to congressional colleagues on Brexit.
Senator Murphy said a trade deal that would rescue the British economy post-Brexit was not going to happen.
He said that he was "skeptical" that any trade deal with the UK would ever happen, pointing out that there was not enough time to negotiate and pass a deal before the end of President Trump's first term in office and the current Congressional session.
While President Trump has spoken of his desire to do a trade deal with the UK, any pact would have to be passed by the US Congress before it could be formally signed into law.
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Speaking to RTÉ News in Dublin, Senator Murphy warned that those in favour of Brexit should note that any expected US-UK trade deal would not be the thing to save Britain's economy when it leaves the EU.
He said there was cross-party support on Capitol Hill to protect the Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ireland peace process and to prevent the return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.
He said increasingly colleagues in the House of Representatives and the Senate were taking a greater interest in Brexit and that delegations of US politicians could be expected to make visits to the UK and to Ireland in the coming weeks.
Senator Chris Murphy said he and fellow Irish American politicians would continue to campaign so that there would not be any possible return to a hard border on the island of Ireland in the wake of Brexit.
