Donald Trump to visit UK for major summit days before general election
2 min read
Donald Trump will visit London to attend a major gathering of world leaders just days before the UK’s 12 December general election.
The US President is due to attend the Nato summit between 2 and 4 December, which comes as Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn enter the penultimate week of campaigning.
Mr Trump, who will be joined by wife and first lady Melania, will also attend a reception at Buckingham Palace, to be hosted by the Queen.
In a statement, the White House said: “President Trump looks forward to meeting with the other NATO Heads of State and government to review the Alliance’s unprecedented progress on burden-sharing, including adding more than $100 billion in new defense spending since 2016.”
The announcement comes a fortnight after the outspoken President branded Mr Johnson a “fantastic man” while insisting a Corbyn-led government would take the UK “into such bad places”.
He told LBC, in an interview with Nigel Farage: “You know as President of the United States I have great relationships with many of the leaders including Boris, he's a fantastic man and I think he's the exact right guy for the times,” he said.
Mr Corbyn later responded: “Donald Trump is trying to interfere in Britain’s election to get his friend Boris Johnson elected."
“It was Trump who said in June the NHS is 'on the table'. And he knows if Labour wins US corporations won’t get their hands on it. Our NHS is not for sale.”
The visit could prompt unease for Mr Johnson however, after Downing Street was forced to hit back at the President’s claim in the same interview that he had concerns about “certain aspects” of the government's Brexit deal.
The US leader said: “We want to do trade with UK, and they want to do trade with us... and to be honest with you under certain aspects of this deal, you can’t do it, you can’t trade.”
A Number 10 spokesperson later responded: "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."
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