London Mayor Boris Johnson took issue with President Obama’s calls for the United Kingdom to stay in the European Union.
Johnson, who has been an advocate for Britain’s exit from the EU, attacked Obama in an op-ed for The Sun for supporting the British government’s position against the exit (dubbed “Brexit”). Johnson also brought up a story about Obama returning a bust of Winston Churchill to the British embassy in D.C. (a story that has since been debunked).
“Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire — of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender,” Johnson wrote in the op-ed published Friday, referencing Obama’s Kenyan-born father. “Some said that perhaps Churchill was seen as less important than he once was. Perhaps his ideas were old-fashioned and out of date.”
In a Thursday op-ed for The Telegraph, Obama urged Britons to refuse the “Brexit.” He is meeting with Queen Elizabeth II Friday and will hold a news conference with Prime Minister David Cameron later in the day.
According to Johnson, the United States “would not dream of embroiling itself in anything of the kind.”
“For the United States to tell us in the UK that we must surrender control of so much of our democracy — it is a breathtaking example of the principle of do-as-I-say-but-not-as-I-do,” Johnson wrote. “It is incoherent. It is inconsistent, and yes it is downright hypocritical. The Americans would never contemplate anything like the EU, for themselves or for their neighbours in their own hemisphere. Why should they think it right for us?”
According to The Guardian, Johnson has come under fire for his stance on the “Brexit,” as well as for his Kenya comments. Johnson is a member of the Conservative Party.
“As ever, it’s more bad judgment from Boris Johnson. Is this really how a man who wants to be prime minister should be talking about the president of the United States?” Labour Party politician Yvette Cooper said.
