Donald Trump's national security adviser has told Sky News the UK will be "at the top of the queue" for a trade deal after Brexit, in a sign that the Trump administration is growing impatient with delays to Britain leaving the EU.

John Bolton said that the British people should not fear a no-deal scenario.

"People who worry about the United Kingdom crashing out of the European Union - they are going to crash right into the United States," said Mr Bolton.

"We are standing here waiting to make a trade deal with a UK independent of the EU."

He stressed President Trump's commitment to Brexit, that he is "eager for the will of the British people to be carried out, and he is even more eager to do a trade deal".


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Earlier this month, Mr Trump said he could not believe "how badly" the Brexit negotiations were going.

He said: "I'm surprised at how badly it has all gone from a standpoint of negotiations, but I gave the prime minister my ideas of how to negotiate it, she didn't listen to that and that's fine but it could have been negotiated in a different manner, frankly".

The UK must be outside of the European Union before a unilateral trade deal can be negotiated with the United States.

President Trump has in the past promised the United Kingdom a "very, very big deal, very, very quickly".

Mr Bolton echoed that sentiment, saying that "the president wants to be able to deal with a Britain that we think disfavours the United States when it is in connection to the European Union".

Image: Donald Trump has said he wants to strike a 'very big' trade deal with the UK

He went on to say: "Honestly from the United States, and for that matter the United Kingdom, I don't understand why you would want to get out of the European Union and not be able to set your own rules.

"That's what independence means, and that's what the president wants to do.

"He thinks that the EU rules discriminate against American trade, and he wants a free, fair, a reciprocal trade deal with Great Britain."

In April 2016, President Obama told then prime minister David Cameron that "the UK is going to be at the back of the queue" to make a trade deal with the United States.

Mr Bolton attacked that statement, saying "the people in Great Britain need to know this is the top of the priority. This isn't the Obama administration; Britain will be at the top of the queue for us".