Eurosceptic Farage urges British PM to listen to Trump

| | London
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Eurosceptic Farage urges British PM to listen to Trump

Friday, 01 November 2019 | AFP | London

Eurosceptic Farage urges British PM to listen to Trump

Anti-EU populist Nigel Farage urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday to follow Donald Trump's advice and join forces with his Brexit Party in Britain's pre-Christmas general election.

The US president used a lengthy appearance on Farage's radio phone-in show Thursday to share his opinion on Britain's December 12 snap poll just as campaigning got under way.

Trump urged Johnson and Farage to "get together" in the election campaign and forge "an unstoppable force," and warned that opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn would be "so bad for your country.

He also cautioned that Johnson's EU divorce deal meant that "under certain aspect... You can't trade" with the United States.

Johnson has publically resisted the idea of forming an official union with Farage whose Brexit Party is struggling in the polls.

The eurosceptic is considered a polarising figure who might push away the Conservatives' more moderate supporters.

Trump's intervention became immediate top news in Britain and drew hasty replies from all sides.

Farage made headline just as his Brexit Party prepared to launch its campaign. The veteran EU critic went back on radio Friday morning to tell Johnson -- a fellow campaigner for Brexit during Britain's 2016 EU membership referendum -- to heed Trump's advice.

"Without wanting to hurt Boris Johnson, he told the truth about this shocking, awful EU treaty," Farage told LBC radio.

"It's doubtful even by 2023, we would even be in a position to have a trade deal with the USA," he added.

"If that applies to America, that applies to Japan, it applies to India, it applies to Australia. For goodness sake, Boris, drop the deal and let's start again with a clean sheet." He promised to use his party's campaign launch to explain "the need, in my view, for some kind of Brexit alliance" with Johnson's Conservatives.

Corbyn tweeted Thursday that Trump was "trying to interfere in Britain's election to get his friend Boris Johnson elected".

The White House chief -- due in Britain for a NATO leaders summit in early December -- remains deeply unpopular in Britain and has exchanged barbs with Corbyn in recent months.

But Trump harbours his own suspicions of Brussels and has embraced Johnson's efforts to get Britain out of the European Union after nearly a half-century of membership.

Reacting to Trump's criticism of the EU deal, Downing Street said Johnson's reworked withdrawal agreement allowed Britain to strike its "own free trade deals around the world from which the UK will benefit".

A UK poll of polls shows his Conservatives leading Corbyn's Labour by 36 to 25 percent margin.

But support for Farage's party has slipped to 11 per cent. His party has struggled since winning the European Parliament elections Britain was forced to take part in May because of repeated Brexit delays.

Johnson might need to secure a majority of the seats in the lower House of Commons to stay in power and avoid the feat of becoming one of Britain's shortest-serving prime ministers.

His minority government's old alliance with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is in disarray because of disagreement over Johnson's new Brexit deal.

The other smaller parties all back Europe and are more likely to try to form a coalition designed to stop Brexit.

"We are not negotiating with the Brexit Party," a Downing Street source told The Sun newspaper. "We do not do electoral pacts."

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