UK PM Mr Boris Johnson Prime (right) with the outgoing President Donald Trump of US
Boris Johnson Prime Minister (PM) on Wednesday defended his relationship with the US President, Mr Donald Trump as he insisted that the United Kingdom (UK) prime minister should always have the ‘best possible’ ties with the sitting US president.
The PM was grilled on his relationship with the outgoing incumbent of the White House as he faced senior MPs on Parliament’s influential Liaison Committee. He was asked if given ‘recent events’ in Washington he regretted suggesting in 2018 that Mr Trump could be worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.
He would not be drawn directly as he stressed the importance of Britain and the US maintaining the Special Relationship. Mr Trump has faced international criticism in the wake of last week’s attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters. The US President has now been impeached for a second time by the US House.
Catherine McKinnell, the Labour chairman of the Petitions Committee, asked Mr Johnson on Wednesday afternoon as he appeared in front of the Liaison Committee: ‘I wanted first just to ask you about one of the most popular e-petitions ever submitted to Parliament which called for Donald Trump to be prevented from making a state visit to the UK in 2017.
‘Given recent events, Prime Minister, do you regret saying in 2018 that Donald Trump was worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize?’ Mr Johnson replied: ‘I am in favour of the Prime Minister of the UK having the best possible relationship with the President of the United States and I had an excellent conversation very recently with president-elect Joe Biden.’
Ms McKinnell was referring to remarks made by Mr Johnson in May 2018 when he told Sky News: ‘If Trump can fix North Korea and the Iran nuclear deal then I don’t see why he’s any less of a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize than Barack Obama.’
The clash at the committee came after YouTube announced it is suspending Mr Trump’s account for ‘a minimum of seven days’ due to concerns about ‘the ongoing potential for violence’. ‘It now has its 1st strike & is temporarily prevented from uploading new content for a *minimum* of 7 days.
‘Given the ongoing concerns about violence, we will also be indefinitely disabling comments on President Trump’s channel, as we’ve done to other channels where there are safety concerns found in the comments section.’
The move comes after fellow social media giants Facebook, Instagram and Twitter decided to remove the President’s accounts. ‘After review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to Donald J Trump’s channel for violating our policies,’ YouTube said in a statement published on Twitter.
