Former PM Blair: Don't hold your breath for UK-U.S. trade deal

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday that a UK-U.S. trade deal would be very difficult to agree, saying protectionist sentiment worldwide was making trade agreements harder to negotiate.

"I wouldn't hold your breath on a United States-UK trade deal, I think it is going to be very difficult," Blair told a Reuters Newsmaker event.

"In today's world they (trade deals) are even more difficult because there is a lot of protectionist sentiment."

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton, writing by William James)