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AFP
Washington
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to be Britain’s next prime minister, would do a “great job” in the post after the pair had a telephone conversation.
“I like him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I spoke to him yesterday.” “He is going to do a great job,” the Republican president added. “We get along well.”
Johnson is tipped to replace Theresa May as prime minister next week, when the results of a postal ballot by the governing Conservative Party are revealed.
Trump renewed his long-standing criticisms of May, saying she had done “a very poor job” of taking Britain out of the EU and predicting that Brexit hardliner Johnson would fix the “disaster.”
“He’s a different kind of a guy, but they say I’m a different kind of a guy too. We get along well. I think we’ll have a very good relationship,” Trump told reporters.
Earlier this month, Trump lashed out at May following the leak of diplomatic cables from Britain’s ambassador to Washington describing the US leader as “inept,” and voiced thanks that her premiership would soon be over.
“What a mess she and her representatives have created. I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, the European Union is preparing to offer Boris Johnson a no-deal Brexit extension beyond October 31, the Guardian newspaper reported on Friday.
“It will be described as a technical delay to save Boris from political embarrassment but then we will have time to find an agreement,” a senior EU diplomat told the newspaper http://bit.ly/2xWScq9.
Boris Johnson could maintain the stance of being on course to leave the EU without an agreement while keeping open the option of coming to a deal with the bloc, according to the proposal cited by the Guardian.
EU leaders are discussing steps to be taken in the event Johnson presses ahead with exiting the European Union without a transition deal on Oct 31, the newspaper said.
A declaration expressing the EU’s offer to re-engage if Britain were to accept its financial commitments in any divorce from the EU has been proposed, the report added.
On Saturday, opponents of Britain’s exit from the EU hoisted a ‘Boris blimp’ portraying the UK’s likely next prime minister as a crying child as they demonstrated outside parliament.
Inspired by the orange blimp of a baby Donald Trump that mocked the US President during his visit to London last month, the balloon featured Johnson, the favourite to be Britain’s next prime minister, in a t-shirt emblazoned with a red bus and the figure 350 million pounds, referring to his promise of clawing back cash from Brussels to spend on Britain’s state health service instead.
Washington
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to be Britain’s next prime minister, would do a “great job” in the post after the pair had a telephone conversation.
“I like him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I spoke to him yesterday.” “He is going to do a great job,” the Republican president added. “We get along well.”
Johnson is tipped to replace Theresa May as prime minister next week, when the results of a postal ballot by the governing Conservative Party are revealed.
Trump renewed his long-standing criticisms of May, saying she had done “a very poor job” of taking Britain out of the EU and predicting that Brexit hardliner Johnson would fix the “disaster.”
“He’s a different kind of a guy, but they say I’m a different kind of a guy too. We get along well. I think we’ll have a very good relationship,” Trump told reporters.
Earlier this month, Trump lashed out at May following the leak of diplomatic cables from Britain’s ambassador to Washington describing the US leader as “inept,” and voiced thanks that her premiership would soon be over.
“What a mess she and her representatives have created. I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, the European Union is preparing to offer Boris Johnson a no-deal Brexit extension beyond October 31, the Guardian newspaper reported on Friday.
“It will be described as a technical delay to save Boris from political embarrassment but then we will have time to find an agreement,” a senior EU diplomat told the newspaper http://bit.ly/2xWScq9.
Boris Johnson could maintain the stance of being on course to leave the EU without an agreement while keeping open the option of coming to a deal with the bloc, according to the proposal cited by the Guardian.
EU leaders are discussing steps to be taken in the event Johnson presses ahead with exiting the European Union without a transition deal on Oct 31, the newspaper said.
A declaration expressing the EU’s offer to re-engage if Britain were to accept its financial commitments in any divorce from the EU has been proposed, the report added.
On Saturday, opponents of Britain’s exit from the EU hoisted a ‘Boris blimp’ portraying the UK’s likely next prime minister as a crying child as they demonstrated outside parliament.
Inspired by the orange blimp of a baby Donald Trump that mocked the US President during his visit to London last month, the balloon featured Johnson, the favourite to be Britain’s next prime minister, in a t-shirt emblazoned with a red bus and the figure 350 million pounds, referring to his promise of clawing back cash from Brussels to spend on Britain’s state health service instead.
