Boris Johnson rages at ‘ridiculous and weird’ Obama: Extraordinary statement to MoS mocks President over his threat to hold back trade deal in devastating intervention

Daily Mail:

Boris Johnson has launched an astonishing attack on Barack Obama’s ‘ridiculous and weird’ arguments for Britain to stay in the EU.

In an outspoken assault last night, the London Mayor mocked the US President’s controversial claim that Anglo-US trade would be hit by Brexit.

And he stepped up his war of words with Obama over Winston Churchill, claiming that the wartime leader and the US both stood for democracy – and that the EU didn’t. Brexit cheerleader Johnson spoke out as infighting broke out among senior figures in the ‘Leave’ campaign after Obama’s devastating intervention.

Some privately admitted they fear they are heading for defeat in the referendum on June 23.

Prominent pro-‘Leave’ Tory MP Peter Bone said: ‘Our message is being drowned out by the Government.’ And one ‘Leave’ official said: ‘We had no idea Boris was going to attack Obama so provocatively. It was a misjudgment. He must stop going off-piste.’

Obama’s intervention is seen as a potential game-changer in the referendum campaign, with some ‘Remain’ supporters predicting a decisive 60-40 victory. 

Respected poll expert Professor John Curtice said yesterday that the ‘Remain’ camp made ‘significant progress’ last week but the race was ‘far from over’.

Johnson had riled Obama almost before he arrived in the UK, saying the ‘part-Kenyan’ President had removed a Churchill bust from the Oval Office because of his ‘ancestral dislike of the British Empire’.

Obama responded by demolishing Johnson’s claim that Britain could quickly cut its own trade deals with the US. And he said he ‘loved’ Churchill – and still saw his bust every day in the White House.

Barack Obama is entitled to his view and he is an honoured guest, but it is ridiculous to warn that the UK will be at the back of the queue for a free trade deal.

The UK has never been able to do a free trade deal with the US in the last 43 years – because we are in the EU!

Any negotiations are entirely in the hands of the European Commission and only 3.6 per cent of commission officials actually come from this country.

Negotiations are held up by absurd problems like the French restrictions on Hollywood movies or Greek hostility to American feta cheese.

No one in the last 48 hours has come close to answering my point – it is very weird that the US should be telling the UK to do something they would not dream of doing themselves in a million years.

We can be better allies of America if we recapture control of our democracy and our borders and £350 million a week, much of which could be spent on this country’s real priorities, such as health. It’s time to take back control, folks.

The crucial thing that Churchill stood for, and that America stands for today, is representative democracy. The problem with the EU is that nobody knows who is in charge and nobody knows who is making these decisions.

Mr Johnson told The Mail on Sunday last night: ‘Barack Obama is entitled to his view… but it is ridiculous to warn that the UK will be at the back of the queue for a free trade deal.’

And he pointed out the only reason the UK hadn’t already got a trade deal with America, was because we were in the EU, which hampered negotiations.

And in a direct challenge to Obama he said: ‘It is very weird that the US should be telling the UK to do something they would not dream of doing themselves.’

In a separate interview yesterday, Mr Johnson was asked if he should apologise for his comments about Obama.

In reply, he suggested criticism was an attempt to sabotage him by David Cameron’s ‘Remain’ supporters. 

He scoffed: ‘Oh come on. This is all a complete distraction – an attempt by the Remain campaign to throw dust in people’s eyes.’ 

And he raised the stakes, repeating his charge of ‘hypocrisy’ against Obama, saying it was ‘inconsistent, perverse and yes, hypocritical’ to tell the EU to give up its sovereignty when the US would do no such thing.

‘Leave’ campaigners claimed the President’s comment that the UK would be at ‘the back of the queue’ for negotiating a trade deal with the US was part of a ‘stunt’ orchestrated by Mr Cameron in return for helping Obama obtain a prominent role in the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations. 

Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames, Churchill’s grandson, called Mr Johnson’s remarks ‘appalling’.

And Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell tweeted that Boris’s ‘part-Kenyan’ comment was ‘dog-whistle racism’.

I’ve been hearing the terrn “dog whistle racism” in regard to Donald Trump too. Apparently these are a kind of code racists can hear, but everybody else misses. I think a better term is: grasping at straws.