LONDON – British politicians expressed outrage on Friday at the UnitedStates President Donald Trump’s attack on the government’s Brexit strategy,although one leading euro-sceptic said it was “perfectly reasonable”.
“Where are your manners, Mr President?” tweeted Universities Minister SamGyimah.
Other MPs in May’s Conservative party rounded on the president for being“determined to insult” Prime Minister Theresa May as she hosted him on atrip to Britain.
The opposition Labour party called him “extraordinarily rude”.
Downing Street stayed silent but junior foreign minister Alan Duncanbrushed off the row, saying Trump was a “controversialist, that’s hisstyle”.
In an interview in The Sun tabloid published Friday, Trump said May’s plansto keep close economic ties with the EU after Brexit would “kill” its hopesof a US trade deal.
He also warned about migration into European cities including London,criticising Mayor Sadiq Khan over recent terror attacks and knife crime.
He also suggested Boris Johnson, who quit as foreign secretary this week inprotest at May’s Brexit proposal, would make a good prime minister.
“@realDonaldTrump determined to insult our PM,” said Sarah Woollaston, aConservative MP and chairwoman of parliament’s health committee.
.@realDonaldTrumplink> determinedto insult our PM. The divisive, dog-whistle rhetoric in his @TheSunlink> interview is repulsive .If signing up to the #Trumplink> world viewis the price of a deal, it’s not worth paying— Sarah Wollaston MP (@sarahwollaston) July 12, 2018link>
She attacked his “divisive, dog-whistle rhetoric” on migration, adding: “Ifsigning up to the #Trump world view is the price of a deal, it’s not worthpaying.”
While she noted May would probably keep silent, she said: “Many will becheering if she tells @realDonaldTrump where he can stick his dog whistle”.
Emily Thornberry, foreign affairs spokeswoman for the opposition Labourparty who has herself called May’s Brexit plan a “delusion”, said Trump hadbeen “extraordinarily rude”.
“She is his host. What did his mother teach him? This is not the way youbehave,” she told ITV.
Stand up to himYvette Cooper, a Labour MP and chairwoman of parliament’s home affairscommittee said: “Trump’s appalling behaviour makes me sympathise withTheresa May.
“[Until] I remember her desperate rush to invite him, her repeatedreluctance to criticise his Muslim ban or caging of children, her chasinghim for a bad trade deal…. For God’s sake Theresa, stand up to him today.”
May must publicly respond to Trump’s comments when the pair hold a pressconference later on Friday.
Some Twitter users speculated that she could hit back, as Hugh Grant didplaying the prime minister in romantic comedy “Love Actually”.
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband offered some suggestions for her response.
She could say that “he and I do disagree on some things: his tearing ofbabies from their parents, his racist attacks on the London mayor, hislies, his admiration for dictators, and I tend to think his combover is anabsurdity”.
Trump is not the first US president to intervene on Brexit — Barack Obamawarned ahead of the 2016 referendum that if it left the EU, Britain wouldbe at the “back of the queue” for a US deal.
Brexit supporters cried foul at the time, but eurosceptic MP JacobRees-Mogg said on Friday that Trump’s comments were different because theydid not come in the middle of a campaign.
He said his remarks on trade were a “perfectly reasonable thing for anAmerican president to say”. – APP/AFP