Trump Says He'll Stay Out Of UK Election Then Immediately Backs Boris Johnson, Brexit

Donald Trump had promised to “stay out” of the UK’s general election campaigning during this week’s visit to London — but he then immediately backed both Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brexit.

Speaking to reporters on the first day of his visit to the UK for a two-day meeting of NATO leaders, the infamously opinionated president was asked why he hadn’t commented on next week’s vote.

He replied: “Because I don’t want to complicate it. I’ll stay out of the election.”

Trump then immediately complicated things by adding: “I think Boris [Johnson] is very capable and I think he’ll do a good job.

“You know that I was a fan of Brexit. I called it the day before.”

Trump did show a measure of restraint, however, when asked if he could work with Jeremy Corbyn should opposition party Labour win the general election.

The president replied: “I can work with anybody. I’m a very easy person to work with.”

Trump also emphatically denied the U.S. is seeking to open up Britain’s National Health Service to American competition, fears raised by a set of leaked papers revealed by Labour last week, but also appeared to be confused about what has been suggested.

The U.S. government has already expressed a desire to open up UK markets to American drug companies, but Trump made it sound like the entire NHS was for sale.

He said: “We have absolutely nothing to do with it and we wouldn’t want to if you handed it to us on a silver platter. We want nothing to do with it.”

The NHS is a hot topic during Trump’s visit to the UK. Corbyn welcomed him with a letter demanding he will not try to push medicine prices up through a post-Brexit trade deal.

Last week, the Labour Party leader called a press conference at which he brandished an unredacted report that gave details of meetings between U.S. and UK officials, where they discussed the stipulations of a free trade deal between the two nations after Britain leaves the European Union.