Donald Trump to land in UK amid rising anger over trade
demands
US ambassador’s suggestion that NHS should be ‘on the table’
in future negotiations sparks alarm
Jessica Elgot and Patrick Wintour
Sun 2 Jun 2019 22.30 BST Last modified on Mon 3 Jun 2019
05.20 BST
Donald Trump will land in the UK on Monday amid anger over
comments made by his ambassador suggesting the NHS should be “on the table” in
future trade negotiations.
His visit also came as cabinet ministers vying for the Tory
leadership suggested they could tear up plans for the Chinese tech giant Huawei
to build parts of the UK’s 5G network, after the ambassador, Woody Johnson,
warned it was “a big risk”.
Trump, who will meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace on the
first day of his state visit, will be met by thousands of protesters in London
the following day during a visit packed with pomp, pageantry and controversy
that has seen numerous calls for its cancellation.
Johnson stoked opposition on Sunday after suggesting the UK
would need to allow US agricultural products, including chlorinated chicken, on
to the UK market as part of any post-Brexit trade deal, as well as US private
sector involvement in the NHS.
The administration is said to see the visit as an
opportunity for a “reset moment” on trade, with Theresa May set to formally
resign on Friday.
Addressing the prospect of a transatlantic trade deal, Trump
told reporters before leaving the US: “(We’re) going to the UK. I think it’ll
be very important. It certainly will be very interesting. There’s a lot going
on in the UK. And I’m sure it’s going to work out very well for them.
“As you know, they want to do trade with the United States,
and I think there’s an opportunity for a very big trade deal at some point in
the near future. And we’ll see how that works out.”
May called the visit “a significant week for the special
relationship and an opportunity to further strengthen our already close
partnership”. She stressed the need to build closer trading ties.
“We are the largest investors in each other’s economies and
our strong trading relationship and close business links create jobs,
opportunities and wealth for our citizens,” she said, adding that the government
was looking forward to “building on the strong and enduring ties between our
countries”.
Trump, who has endorsed the Tory leadership frontrunner
Boris Johnson, had been a vocal critic of the prime minister’s proposed Brexit
deal, which would have kept a customs arrangement with the EU for free movement
of goods, which the US believed would scupper any comprehensive deal.
Woody Johnson, US
ambassador.
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Woody Johnson, US ambassador: ‘I think the entire economy, in a trade deal,
all things that are traded would be on the table.’ Photograph: HANDOUT/Reuters
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The health secretary, Matt Hancock, became the first
leadership contender to explicitly rule out any trade deal that put the NHS on
the table.
“I love our NHS – it’s been there for me and my family when
we have needed it most, and I want to make sure it is always there for all
families,” he said ahead of the president’s arrival. “So I have a clear
message: the NHS is not for sale and it will not be on the table in any future
trade talks.”
The US ambassador, who is a close friend of the US
president, said every area of the UK economy would be up for discussion when
the two sides brokered a trade deal.
Asked if the NHS was likely to form part of trade negotiations,
he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “I think the entire economy, in a trade
deal, all things that are traded would be on the table.” Asked if that
specifically meant healthcare, he said: “I would think so.”
His comments prompted an alarmed reaction from opposition
politicians. The shadow health secretary, Jon Ashworth, said the comments were
deeply concerning.
“The ambassador’s comments are terrifying and show that a
real consequence of a no-deal Brexit, followed by a trade deal with Trump, will
be our NHS up for sale. This absolutely should not be on the table,” he said.
“Nigel Farage and the Tories want to rip apart our publicly-funded and provided
NHS. Labour will always defend it.”
Johnson was also pressed on whether the US would seek a
loosening of agricultural standards, including the importation of chlorinated
chicken. He said the products should be offered to British consumers who could
decide whether to buy them.
“There will have to be some deal where you give the British
people a choice,” he said. “American products can come over … but if the
British people like it, they can buy it; if they don’t like it, they don’t have
to buy it.”
In his Sunday interview, the US ambassador also issued a
veiled warning to May’s successor over the involvement of Huawei in UK
infrastructure, saying he would “caution” the British government not to make
any rushed decisions.
The highly controversial decision is reported to have been
given the go-ahead after a tense national security meeting where May had the
casting vote to allow Huawei to build “non-core” parts of the network, despite
cabinet opposition. The defence secretary Gavin Williamson was sacked for
leaking details of the meeting.
Speaking to CBS, the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt,
underlined the growing UK government doubts about Huawei being given access to
UK 5G networks.
He said that China “have said they want to have an 80%
market share of telecoms technology and in other areas like artificial
intelligence, they want a 90% market share by 2025 … And we have to ask as
western countries whether it’s wise to allow one country to have such a
commanding monopoly in the technologies that we’re all of us going to be
depending on.”
He added that the UK would “never take a decision that
affected our intelligence-sharing capability with the United States”.
Sajid Javid, who is also running to be Tory leader, said he
would oppose Huawei’s involvement in the network. “I would not want any
company, whatever country it is from, that has this high degree of control by a
foreign government, to have access to our very sensitive telecommunications
network,” he said.
Other topics likely to be on the president’s agenda will
include the Middle East peace plan, set out in meetings with British officials
by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and architect of the so-called “deal of
the century”, though the UK is likely to warn the plan needs more emphasis on
political rights for Palestinians.
The Trump team are also likely to probe Downing Street to
see if, once outside the EU, the UK might support US economic sanctions to
force Tehran to reopen the nuclear deal. The US has hopes that a Boris Johnson
premiership might back Trump’s approach.
Trump will be accompanied by his wife Melania and his four
adult children for the three-day visit. He will attend a state banquet at
Buckingham Palace with May and the Queen on Monday. The Labour leader, Jeremy
Corbyn,, the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, and the Lib Dem leader, Sir Vince
Cable, have declined invitations to attend.
Trump is expected to meet May for formal talks in Downing
Street on Tuesday and on Wednesday will travel to Portsmouth for the 75th
anniversary of the D-day landings at Southsea Common, alongside over 300 D-day
veterans and other world leaders.
The Stop Trump coalition said it was expecting huge crowds
at its demonstration on Tuesday, after an estimated 250,000 people protested
during Trump’s last visit. A giant inflatable Trump baby blimp, last seen when
it was flown at his previous trip in June 2018, will fly again on Tuesday.
The protests have been backed by a senior Church of England
bishop, who suggested Christian followers of Trump in the US were
misinterpreting the faith. Paul Bayes, the bishop of Liverpool, said Trump’s
populist way of doing politics was “toxic and dangerous”.
He said: “I don’t agree with him, I think he’s mistaken in
many of his policies, and I think that the Christians who identify with him,
especially in the US, are not properly responding to what our Christian faith
says they should do.”
Editorial
Hobnobbing with the royals will boost the president’s ego.
But this is not the greatest danger of rolling out the red carpet now
Sun 2 Jun 2019 18.50 BST Last modified on Sun 2 Jun 2019
22.00 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/02/the-guardian-view-on-trumps-state-visit-the-president-is-not-welcome
Two and a half years after Theresa May rushed to become the
first world leader to meet the newly inaugurated President Trump in Washington,
she has chosen to make a state visit that should not be taking place the final
act of her premiership. While the prime minister’s poor political judgment and
obstinacy have been hallmarks of her three years in office, the spectacle of
the next three days will make a particularly awful ending. Mr Trump is only the
third US president ever to be honoured with a state visit, the others being
George W Bush and Barack Obama. Inviting him in the first place was a crass error.
Following through in the midst of the UK’s current political crisis is an act
of gross irresponsibility.
That’s because, though such visits are symbolic occasions,
there is more at stake here than pomp and circumstance. Mr Trump is a demagogue
who represents a threat to peace, democracy and the climate of our planet. As
elected leader of the UK’s closest ally, he can’t be ignored. But making him,
his wife and four adult children the honoured guests of the Queen risks
legitimising his destructive policies, his cronyism and his leanings towards
autocracy.
Mr Trump’s vanity is a joke to his detractors – and the
target of the Trump Baby balloon that is set to fly over London again this
week. His power makes his personality a legitimate source of fascination. But
the greatest danger of the visit, which will see the president meet royals at
Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace and Clarence House as well as at the D-day
75th anniversary commemorations in Portsmouth, is not that it will boost his
ego. The more serious threat to the host nation is that Mr Trump’s presence and
public statements will boost anti-democratic and rightwing populist elements
here.
Indeed, this has already happened. Mr Trump’s suggestion
that Nigel Farage should be involved in future negotiations with the EU was
widely reported. So were his declaration of support for no-deal-supporting
Boris Johnson in the Conservative leadership contest, and his advice against
paying the EU’s divorce bill. Before the official visit has even begun, and
four days prior to a byelection in which the Brexit party aims to win its first
parliamentary seat, Mr Farage has been gifted an endorsement from the most
powerful man in the world – while diplomatic norms have once again been
trashed.
For the government of a nation in the throes of what
threatens to become a full-blown constitutional crisis to invite such
irresponsible interference is a form of national self-harm. But the harm caused
by the choice to indulge Mr Trump will ripple beyond our shores too. Last
week’s comments by special counsel Robert Mueller reignited debate over whether
the president should face impeachment. House leader Nancy Pelosi has so far
opposed this. Some have interpreted Mr Mueller’s remarks as a message that she
should reconsider. Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s widening of his trade war from China
to Mexico – with the threat of new tariffs – set international nerves jangling,
and Louisiana became the latest state to dramatically restrict abortion,
ramping up the threat to women’s reproductive rights that Mr Trump has enabled.
It is incumbent upon Mrs May and others to challenge him
directly – or risk appearing to give the assault on women’s rights, and
bullying of neighbouring states, a seal of approval. The climate emergency
should be on every agenda – including Prince Charles’s. The protesters, whom
police have wrongly barred from the entrance to Downing Street, are justifiably
angry. So is London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, whom Mr Trump has previously insulted,
and who hit back on Saturday in the strongest terms. Others will rightly add
their voices in the coming days to the chorus of disapproval against this
costly and destructive jamboree.
Preparations for state visit now in ‘disaster management’
territory, UK official says.
By TOM
MCTAGUE, GABRIELLA ORR AND RYM MOMTAZ 6/1/19,
5:06 PM CET Updated 6/2/19, 11:19 PM CET
U.S. President Donald Trump (left) and British Prime
Minister Theresa May hold a joint press conference following their meeting at
Chequers on July 13, 2018 | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
LONDON — Theresa May has been liberated, but don’t expect a
"Love Actually" moment with Donald Trump.
Having finally raised the white flag in her battle to
extricate Britain from the European Union before she leaves office, the U.K.
prime minister has a final duty to perform: hosting the U.S. president.
Trump's visit has been long in the making — conceived during
May’s first trip to Washington as prime minister back in 2016 when she was
riding high in the polls and was the first world leader to visit the Trump White
House.
Trump has already made one visit to the U.K. as U.S.
president, in July last year, when he attracted widespread protests and was
involved in an unseemly row over whether he kept Queen Elizabeth waiting. But
this is his first trip to be classed as a "state visit," involving
extra pomp and pageantry.
Despite the uneasy relationship that has developed between
the U.S. leader and the British prime minister, May had been looking forward to
the visit, senior U.K. officials familiar with her preparations told POLITICO.
It was a chance to put the special relationship back on a firmer footing amid
growing signs of disinterest in Washington.
Yet, since May’s forced resignation announcement, planning
for the visit is now in “disaster management” territory, according to one
official close to the prime minister. With Brexit unresolved and the
Conservative Party leadership race already exploding into life ahead of May's
official end date of June 7, the Trump visit could hardly be more badly timed.
Even before setting off, Trump waded into British domestic
politics. He expressed admiration for Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage and
Boris Johnson, who is aiming to replace May as Tory leader and prime minister.
They are both “very good guys” and “very interesting people,” Trump told
reporters. He doubled down with vocal backing for Johnson in an interview just
ahead of the trip.
Once on British soil, will Trump boost Johnson's leadership
credentials further or weigh in on May’s failures? Will the U.S. president use
the opportunity to stoke the flames of populism many in the U.K. government
believe are now engulfing Westminster and the U.K.’s relationship with Europe?
British officials are ready for anything.
“The thing is, he is who he is and he is the type of
president he is,” said a second aide close to the prime minister who wished to
remain anonymous. “He will say what he will say. That is already built into
expectations.”
“She will be perfectly comfortable speaking direct to him,
but I wouldn’t expect a 'Love Actually' moment” — Aide to Theresa May
Yet, if that is the known unknown — in Rumsfeldian
terminology — what of the other less-discussed question mark hanging over the
trip: Is a liberated Theresa May any different to the one that went before?
Freed from some of the electoral concerns of office, will a
transformed U.K. prime minister be on display — one more likely to challenge
the U.S. president she may never see again?
“She’s already been pretty straight talking with him,” the
second aide close to May said. “She will be perfectly comfortable speaking
direct to him, but I wouldn’t expect a 'Love Actually' moment.”
In the sickly Richard Curtis flick, an offended British
prime minister played by Hugh Grant finally loses his patience with an
obnoxious U.S. president, portrayed by Billy Bob Thornton, humiliating his
host. The mild-mannered British leader wins public affection for standing up to
a bully in public.
Those close to May insist the chances of such a public
outburst — whatever the provocation — are minimal, though they insist this does
not mean the PM will not challenge the U.S. leader where she disagrees with
him.
“Where we have slightly different views of how to achieve
broadly similar aims, she’s just said them straight to him and that will be the
same this time round,” the second aide said.
No. 10's spin doctors may hope that the media focus will be
on the pageantry and historical context of the visit. Trump will be hosted by
Queen Elizabeth for a state banquet on Monday evening after a private lunch
with the monarch and a visit to Westminster Abbey. On Wednesday, May and Trump
will attend a D-Day memorial event at Portsmouth Naval Base. The following day,
they both head to Normandy for another D-Day 75th anniversary commemoration,
hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
One item that will not be on Trump's agenda is an address to
the British parliament — an opportunity afforded to at least two of the
president's recent predecessors, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
The White House struggled to decide whether to request such
an honor, according to two U.S. administration officials, but concluded it
wasn’t worth the potential embarrassment of a rejection. That scenario seemed
likely after John Bercow, the speaker of the House of Commons, declined to
formally invite the U.S. leader to deliver remarks.
“A majority of the president’s advisers agreed that it would
be better to limit [Trump’s] public remarks to his joint press conference [with
May],” one of the officials said.
The trip will not be all pomp and no policy. Despite leaving
office, the prime minister hopes to use the president's visit to align Britain
and the U.S. more closely on a range of strategic issues, including the challenges
posed to both countries by China, Russia and Iran, as well as talking global
trade policy.
“The systems speak to each other all the time [on] different
levels,” the second British aide said. “But having conversations face to face
allows us to correct any misunderstandings, and we don’t know if it's the same
message coming from the president.”
“The world doesn’t stand still to wait for us to sort out
Brexit. And the issues with China, Iran, Russia are live and dynamic," the
aide said. "Making sure we have a good relationship and a good
understanding with our strongest and most important ally is incredibly
important.”
Trump's last visit to France to mark Remembrance Day still
looms large in French memories.
Britain shares the Trump administration’s assessment that
China poses a potential strategic threat, but believes it is better to work
with — rather than against — Beijing to encourage it to stick to a rules-based
international order. The two allies' differences on China come into sharp focus
in their approach to Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. Washington has warned the
U.K. that if Huawei builds 5G networks in Britain, London could lose access to
U.S. intelligence information.
The U.K. also takes a different line on Iran to the U.S.
government, continuing to support the international deal meant to curb Tehran's
nuclear program that Trump has abandoned. However, on Russia, it is the U.K.
which has appealed for a tougher stance than many in Europe and the U.S.
For France, Trump's visit is a delicate balancing act
between honoring its centurieslong alliance with the U.S. and standing its
ground on increasingly contentious issues between the two countries such as
trade, climate policy and Iran — ideally, without provoking a salvo of tweets.
The D-Day commemoration will be an opportunity to
"recall that the U.S. is an unshakeable friend ... that it helped us
remain an independent France just like we helped it 150 years prior to achieve
its independence," said an Elysée Palace official.
The two presidents will honor the fallen at the
Franco-American cemetery in Normandy before holding close to three hours of
talks.
"Iran and trade will be the main course on the
menu," said another Elysée official.
Like the U.K., France is sticking by the Iran nuclear deal.
The official said France would encourage the U.S. to sign onto a common
political strategy on Tehran "to be able to both respond to its legitimate
concerns and at the same time not box ourselves into a confrontation."
Trump's last visit to France to mark World War I Remembrance
Day still looms large in French memories. He attacked Macron via Twitter soon
after arriving, shortly after leaving and again a few weeks later — a
diplomatic assault by a U.S. president on his French counterpart described as
"unprecedented" by the second Elysée official.
This time around, Trump has already taken a dig at Macron by
claiming that the Yellow Jacket protest movement that erupted in France late
last year over a carbon tax showed he had made the right call by pulling out of
the Paris climate pact — an agreement staunchly defended by the French
president.
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