Donald Trump backs 'great' Boris Johnson and goads Jeremy Corbyn over no confidence vote
2 min read
Donald Trump has waded into the row over the parliamentary shutdown by saying it will be “very hard” for Jeremy Corbyn to call a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson.
The US president said that is because the Prime Minister “is exactly what the UK has been looking for”, and will prove to be “a great one”.
His extraordinary intervention comes amid a growing row over plans by the Government to suspend Parliament for several weeks ahead of a Queen’s Speech on 14 October.
Commons Speaker John Bercow has called it a “constitutional outrage”, while some MPs have even threatened to stage a sit-in when the session ends the week after next.
It means MPs now have fewer days in which to introduce measures aimed at blocking a no-deal Brexit, such as Mr Corbyn tabling a motion of no confidence in the Government.
But Mr Trump suggested the Labour leader should avoid such a move because it was destined to fail.
He tweeted: “Would be very hard for Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, to seek a no-confidence vote against new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, especially in light of the fact that Boris is exactly what the UK has been looking for, and will prove to be ‘a great one!’.
“Love UK.”
Mr Corbyn had earlier called on the Queen to overrule Mr Johnson’s plan.
The Labour leader wrote to Her Majesty requesting a meeting before she granted the prorogation order, but by the time it was sent on Wednesday lunchtime, the plan had already been approved.
A delegation of Privy Council members, led by its president Jacob Rees-Mogg, went to Balmoral on Wednesday morning to make the request.
Elsewhere MPs launched a legal bid to block Mr Johnson from shutting down Parliament, with more than 70 of them putting their names to an emergency motion to be considered by the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Thursday.
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