How will Donald Trump’s intervention affect the general election?

The comments from ‘Donald from Washington’ will have caused headaches in Johnson’s election team, writes Ashley Cowburn

Trump and Johnson have spoken admirably of each other (Getty)

When Barack Obama intervened in the EU referendum, claiming the UK would be at the “back of the queue” in any trade deal with America, he faced the wrath of Brexiteers who were incandescent with his comments.

Nigel Farage, then the leader of Ukip, accused the US president of behaving “disgracefully”, and even went as far as to praise the Russian president Vladimir Putin for maintaining his “silence throughout the whole campaign”.

Fast forward three years, and Farage, now the leader of the Brexit Party, has used his radio show to actively encourage transatlantic interventions in domestic UK politics from the new resident of the White House.

Calling into LBC, “Donald from Washington” will have initially delighted Downing Street with his glowing remarks of the prime minister. “He’s a fantastic man,” declared the US president. “I think he’s the exact right guy for the times.”

Compare that with his assessment of the Labour leader: “Corbyn would be so bad for your country. He’d be so bad, he’d take you in such a bad way. He’d take you into such bad places.”

But he will have caused headaches in Johnson’s election team after claiming the Brexit deal brokered between the UK and the EU could get in the way of the Brexiteers’ prize of a trade deal with America. “We want to do trade with the UK, and they want to do trade with us,” he said.

He went on: “And, to be honest with you, this deal, under certain aspects of the deal – you can’t do it, you can’t do it, you can’t trade. We can’t make a trade deal with the UK.”

No 10 will also be frustrated with the comments from “Donald”, given they came just hours before Farage launched his own electoral efforts. The Brexit Party leader’s campaign relies on discrediting Johnson’s deal and offering a “clean-break” (no deal) exit from the European Union. The US president just provided ammunition to Farage, someone he holds in high regard.

For team Corbyn, however, they couldn’t have been more delighted. Within minutes, the Labour leader had issued his response to his 2 million Twitter followers, declaring: “Donald Trump is trying to interfere in Britain’s election to get his friend Boris Johnson elected.”

One Labour source responded: “Trump’s intervention couldn’t have come at a better time than the day Jeremy challenged the elites and warned about the impact of a US trade deal on our NHS.”

“The people of this country don’t want our NHS spending an extra £500m a week wit big drugs corporations in a toxic Trump deal,” they added.