“But it is pretty clear that a desperate May would have grabbed any chance of a US deal to keep herself in power.”
Well, she sure humped the bunk on that. All she had to do was say “cheerio” to the EU 6 months ago and she would have saved everyone a hole lot of trouble. And she would have secured a trade deal with the US in 90 days.
L
Err... you do know that the UK itself asked for an exit i.e. divorce date of March 29th. The UK set the date and then two weeks ago asked for a delay.
And the deal is separate from that - her government has made agreements with Switzerland etc. for deals post Brexit but nothing with the USA. Most likely the terms set by the USA are not acceptable to the voting population
“Secured a trade deal with the USA in 90 days” — err.. how? Trade deals between complex economies take time - and the USA and UK have a lot of differences in opinion — for instance the UK wants to protect its farmers from American farm produce and the UK has laws for chicken and egg production (for example) that disqualify American products.
Then NHS - the UK will want its lower prices on pharmaceuticals, and the US will want to protect its pharma companies (they’ve already been asking for higher prices as part of a deal)
A deal will happen no doubt, but 3 months is optimistic for an agreement