Boris Johnson calls for Trump to be welcomed to Britain

Boris Johnson has launched a scathing attack on ‘puerile and backward-looking’ Labour protesters trying to stop Donald Trump from visiting the UK.

Writing in his Sunday Telegraph column, he argued it is in Britain’s national interest to welcome the leader of the world’s greatest and most powerful democracy.

Johnson emphasised America is our greatest trading partner whose companies have invested £250billion and provided 1.2million jobs in the UK.

He wrote: ‘In 2016 the people of the United States not only elected Donald Trump; they bought £100 billion of British goods and services. That is more than twice what we sold to Germany – our second biggest export market. Fully one fifth of everything we sell overseas goes to America. 

Boris Johnson has launched a scathing attack on ‘puerile and backward-looking’ Labour protesters trying to stop Donald Trump from visiting the UK

Johnson claimed the special relationship ‘is a swollen throbbing two way transatlantic pipeline of jobs and goods and services – assisted by what is unquestionably a strongly performing US economy. As an economic relationship with a single country, we have nothing like it.’

He added: ‘So when Jeremy Corbyn dismisses that partnership, and says there is nothing particularly important about it (‘no, I think there are many important relationships’, he burbles) the Labour leader betrays not only his anti-Americanism but also his ignorance of this country’s economic interests.’

Ahead of his meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in London this week, Johnson went on to defend US foreign policy and its ‘new willingness to get stuck in’ in the Middle East to tackle Assad’s use of chemical weapons and hasten the defeat of ISIS.  

He concluded his column: ‘President Trump has had highly successful visits to France, Germany, Japan, China, and other countries. It is absolutely right that we should welcome him here, and it is time for Labour to end their Spartist agitations. 

The Foreign Secretary’s comments come after Tillerson said he hopes to visit the controversial new US embassy when he visits London this week.

The State Department said it had not been decided whether he would formally open the building.

Mr Trump cancelled a trip to London to open the embassy scheduled for next month, saying he did not want to endorse a bad deal agreed by the Obama administration to sell the old one for ‘peanuts.’

Speaking to reporters while flying back to Washington from a trip to the North American west coast on Wednesday, Tillerson did not respond when asked if he would formally open the controversial building, but said he hoped to go there.

Johnson's comments come after Tillerson said he hopes to visit the controversial new US embassy when he visits London this week

Johnson’s comments come after Tillerson said he hopes to visit the controversial new US embassy when he visits London this week

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a news briefing on Thursday no ‘ribbon-cutting ceremony’ by Tillerson was currently scheduled during his January 21-23 London visit before the World Economic forum in Davos.

While the deal on the sale of the old embassy site was concluded under President Barack Obama, the decision to move from Grosvenor Square in up-market Mayfair to the south bank of the Thames was agreed in 2008 under Republican President George W. Bush.

Nauert said the new embassy opened this week and the bulk of staff had moved from the old building. 

The cancellation of Trump’s trip was a further blow to relations between Britain and the United States, for long the closest of allies. More than a year into his presidency, Trump has yet to visit London, with many Britons vowing to protest against a man they see as crude, volatile and opposed to their values on a range of issues.

Tillerson rejected the suggestion that Trump might see Britain as less useful now that it was embroiled in Brexit and other political issues.

‘No, not at all,’ he said. ‘I mean, we still have the special relationship with the British people. As you know, President Trump was supportive of the UK’s exit from the EU. He still thinks that was the right decision for them.

‘Britain needs to focus on those Brexit negotiations right now, which is really important to them, and I think the president realizes that’s where Prime Minister May really needs to focus her attention.’ 



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