Boris Johnson’s fury as Donald Trump wades into the election to back Nigel Farage and urge the two to do a pact while criticizing the PM’s Brexit deal for making US-UK trade deal ‘difficult’
- No 10 insists ‘we can strike our free trade deals around the world’ post-Brexit
- US President said: ‘Under certain aspects of the deal. You just can’t do it’
- Mr. Trump said Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage could do something ‘terrific’
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- US President said if they struck an election pact they would be ‘unstoppable’
Boris Johnson has blasted Donald Trump‘s claims a comprehensive free trade agreement between Britain and the US would be impossible to negotiate after the US President trashed his Brexit deal.
Mr. Trump dropped the diplomatic hand grenade in an interview with his friend Nigel Farage on LBC last night as he also urged the Brexit Party and the Tories to form an ‘unstoppable’ general election pact.
The Prime Minister has insisted that his Brexit deal would open the door to a lucrative and wide-ranging free trade deal with the Trump administration when Britain leaves the EU.
But last night Mr. Trump said it would be difficult to trade with the UK under Mr. Johnson’s Brexit deal, telling Mr. Farage: ‘To be honest with you… this deal… under certain aspects of the deal… you can’t do it, you can’t do it, you can’t trade.
‘We can’t make a trade deal with the UK because I think we can do many times the numbers that we’re doing right now and certainly much bigger numbers than you are doing under the European Union.’
Afterward, a Number 10 spokesman said: ‘Under this new deal the whole of the UK will leave the EU Customs Union, which means we can strike our own free trade deals around the world from which every part of the UK will benefit.’
But the president’s intervention will be a boost to Jeremy Corbyn, although Trump said of the Labour leader: ‘Corbyn would be so bad for your country. He’d be so bad, he’d take you in such a bad way. He’d take you into such bad places.’
Donald Trump gave a pohone interview to his friend Nigel Farage where he appeared to trash Boris Johnson’s trade deal, sparking a panicked response from No 10
Mr. Trump made the bombshell comments during an LBC interview with Mr. Farage last night, where the president said the Tories and Brexit Party should make an election pact
Mr. Johnson, pictured on the campaign trail at a self-defense class in Hendon yesterday, has insisted free trade around the world will follow if MPs vote through his deal
Mr. Trump last night piled pressure on Nigel Farage to forge a pact with Boris Johnson and save Britain from Jeremy Corbyn.
In an extraordinary intervention, the US President said the PM and Brexit Party leader would be an ‘unstoppable force’ if they teamed up for the General Election.
Mr. Trump said of the Labour leader: ‘Corbyn would be so bad for your country. He’d take you into such bad places.’
And the President rubbished Mr. Corbyn’s claim that the NHS was ‘on the table’ in talks about a US trade deal, saying: ‘We wouldn’t even be involved in that… it’s not for us to have anything to do with your healthcare system. No, we’re just talking about trade.’
It came as Mr. Farage prepared to reveal this morning whether he will bow to calls to soft-pedal against the Conservatives in next month’s election to help ensure a parliamentary majority for Brexit.
Senior Brexit Party figures have urged Mr. Farage to stand down hundreds of candidates to give Mr. Johnson a clear run and ensure that Brexit is finally delivered.
One source said ‘dozens and dozens’ of Tory MPs had urged the party to stand aside or risk seeing Brexit thwarted again. But Mr. Farage last night indicated he will not back down unless the PM abandons his Brexit deal and agrees to go for a ‘clean break’ with the EU.
Mr. Trump’s diplomatic bombshell came as:
- Mr. Johnson, hitting the campaign trail for the first time, pledged to deliver Brexit by January ‘at the absolute latest’;
- A new poll gave the Tories a 17-point lead over Labour;
- Mr. Trump defended his controversial attempt to broker a meeting between the family of British teenager Harry Dunn and the US diplomat’s wife accused of killing him in a road accident, saying he had hoped they could ‘grieve together’;
- The US President appeared to take a swipe at the Duchess of Sussex’s criticism of her media treatment, saying: ‘She’s taking it very personally’;
Mr. Trump’s intervention came in an interview on Mr. Farage’s show on LBC Radio.
The US President heaped praise on Mr. Johnson, describing him as a ‘terrific guy’ who would deliver Brexit.
Mr. Trump repeatedly appealed to Mr. Farage to join forces with the Conservatives at the election, telling him: ‘I’d like to see you and Boris get together cause you would really have some numbers – you did fantastically in the last election, and he respects you a lot. I just wish you two guys could get together – I think it would be a great thing.’
But the Brexit Party leader was circumspect about the chances of an electoral pact.
Mr. Farage said the PM had brought ‘a tremendous amount of energy to the job’.
But he remained critical of Mr. Johnson’s Brexit deal – and suggested he would only back down if the PM switched to a No Deal strategy. He told Mr. Trump: ‘If he drops this dreadful deal, fights the General Election on the basis that we just want to have trade with Europe but no political influence, do you know what? I would be right behind him.’
Mr. Corbyn has repeatedly claimed that US corporations could be given access to the NHS as part of a new post-Brexit trade deal. The claim looks set to be a central part of Labour’s election campaign, despite direct denials from Mr. Johnson, Trade Secretary Liz Truss, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Mr. Trump last night said it was untrue – and suggested Mr. Corbyn had made it up.
He said: ‘I mean, it’s so ridiculous I think Corbyn put that out there.’
Mr. Corbyn hit back, accusing Mr. Trump of ‘trying to interfere in Britain’s election to get his friend Boris Johnson elected’. He said the President had put the NHS ‘on the table’ in trade talks, adding: ‘He knows if Labour wins, US corporations won’t get their hands on it. Our NHS is not for sale.’
Mr. Trump’s intervention was not entirely helpful to the Prime Minister.
The President said he was ‘disappointed’ that Mr. Johnson – who marks 100 days in office today – had not managed to deliver Brexit, and he warned that a comprehensive free trade agreement could be impossible to negotiate under the terms of the PM’s Brexit deal.
Boris Johnson opens up MASSIVE 17 point poll lead over Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party
Boris Johnson has urged voters to back his ‘oven-ready’ Brexit deal at the ballot box on December 12 as he started the general election campaign with a massive 17 point poll lead over Jeremy Corbyn.
An Ipsos Mori survey conducted for the Evening Standard between October 25-28 has the Tories on 41 percent – up eight points since September.
But Labour is far behind on 24 percent and only narrowly ahead of Jo Swinson and the Liberal Democrats on 20 percent.
An Ipsos Mori survey for the Evening Standard gives the Tories a 17 point lead over Labour with the Lib Dems in third place in 20 percent
The poll has Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party on just seven percent as Mr. Johnson appears to be winning back Leave voters who may have ditched the Tories for the upstart movement.
Meanwhile, the Tories have a 15 point poll lead over Labour in a new YouGov survey conducted for The Times.
The Tories and the Labour Party were in similar positions in the polls at the start of the 2017 general election campaign but ultimately ended up with 42 percent and 40 percent of the total vote share on polling day.
- US President said if they struck an election pact they would be ‘unstoppable’
