Disrespectful and divisive: Reaction to Donald Trump’s latest Brexit broadside
US president Donald Trump has been accused of “disrespecting” the nation after his latest intervention on Brexit.
Mr Trump, who is due to meet Theresa May at her Chequers residence on Friday, was heavily critical of the deal thrashed out by the Cabinet at the 16th century manor house, saying it called into question any future UK-US trade deal.
He told The Sun: “If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal.”
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The president also took aim at London mayor Sadiq Khan and immigration in Europe in the interview.
Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston said Mr Trump was “determined to insult” Mrs May.
She added: “The divisive, dog-whistle rhetoric in his @TheSun interview is repulsive.
“If signing up to the #Trump world view is the price of a deal, it’s not worth paying.”
Emily Thornberry gave a remarkable defence of Mrs May, saying it had been “extraordinarily rude of Donald Trump to behave like this”.
“She is his host. What did his mother teach him? This is not the way you behave,” the shadow foreign secretary told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Ms Thornberry said Mr Trump’s comments on the PM’s Brexit strategy and his suggestion Mr Johnson would be a “great prime minister” were “rudeness upon rudeness upon rudeness”.
However her sympathy for the PM was not unqualified.
The Labour MP said: “You need to stand up to him. She is letting down our country by not standing up to him.”
Nigel Farage was questioned on whether he had “wound up” Mr Trump about Brexit on BBC’s This Week.
The former Ukip leader said: “We’ve had the odd chat about it, I like to have a chat with them (Team Trump).”
Presenter Andrew Neil said Mr Farage’s hand “was all over the article” in The Sun, to which the MEP said: “Oh, on balance they’re probably more Eurosceptic than I am.”
Labour MP Anna Turley questioned why the US president gets to meet the Queen during his four-day visit.
The Redcar representative wrote on Twitter: “Trump is a racist & disrespects our nation. Why does he get to meet our Queen? And those Tories saying we should respect him simply because he is elected President – by that logic shouldn’t he respect our Prime Minister & London’s Mayor?”
While Darren Jones, Labour MP for Bristol North West wrote: “Well this has gone well then. What a humiliating week for Britain (excluding the valiant efforts of our football team!).
Rupa Huq, MP for Central Ealing and Acton said the president’s comments were Islamophobic.
The Labour member said: “A dash of Islamophobia lobbed at Sadiq Khan who he blames for terrorism. Awful stuff.”