British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday it would be “best” if President Donald Trump does not get involved in Britain’s election when he visits London for a NATO summit next week, Reuters informs.
Trump waded into the election in October by saying opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn would be “so bad” for Britain and that Johnson should agree on a pact with Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage.
On Friday, a senior Trump administration official told reporters that Trump is “absolutely cognizant of not, again, wading into other country’s elections.”
But senior Conservatives are nervous that Trump could upset the campaign when in London, just over a week before the Dec. 12 election, which polls indicate Johnson is on course to win.
“What we don’t do traditionally as loving allies and friends, what we don’t do traditionally, is get involved in each other’s election campaigns,” Johnson, 55, told LBC radio. “The best (thing) when you have close friends and allies like the U.S. and the UK is for neither side to get involved in each other’s election.”
Johnson has said that, if he retains power, he will deliver Brexit by January 31 – after nearly four years of political crisis following a 2016 referendum in which Britons voted to leave the European Union.
Johnson also said he wanted to keep in place government preparations for a possible no-deal Brexit – under which Britain would leave without agreement on the terms with Brussels and potentially expose itself to more economic uncertainty – but that he expected to secure a trade deal with the EU by the end of 2020.
“Many of those preparations will be extremely valuable as we come out of EU arrangements anyway,” he told reporters.
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