Barack Obama’s decision to visit Britain during an election campaign was controversial enough. His writing an article against Brexit in the Daily Telegraph was more controversial still. But to stand in Downing Street and threaten his host country with being dumped ‘at the back of the queue’ for trade talks should it choose to leave the EU is, I think, too much. It’s precisely the comment that could backfire, and spark indignation. And make people ask: who on earth is Obama to come to Britain and speak to us in this way? I’ve just recorded a podcast about this with James Forsyth. Here it is:-
It wasn’t what Obama said, as such. Even the EU doesn’t have a free trade deal with the US, and I doubt it will ever agree a proper one. The problem is the dismissive way in which Obama spoke about Britain: as a country that’s too small to be worth bothering with on its own.
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