LIBDEM leader Jo Swinson has warned voters not to trust Donald Trump’s denials when he said he did not want to make the NHS part of a US-UK trade deal.
Speaking on a campaign visit to Essex, Swinson said the US president had previously said the NHS would be “on the table” and he was “hardly somebody” to be trusted.
When asked if there had been some back-channel co-ordination between Downing Street and the White House over presenting Boris Johnson in the best light during the campaign, Swinson said the US president had called in to Nigel Farage’s radio show to say that Farage and Johnson should make an electoral pact.
READ MORE: Senior Tory lets ‘cat out bag’ as Trump denies he's eyeing NHS post-Brexit
She said: “A few days after that, that’s exactly what happened. So clearly that’s what Trump wants to see.
“I think his presence reminds people of how Boris Johnson is just taking a leaf out of the Trump playbook on so many things.”
Trump went on to say yesterday that he was prepared to work with any prime minister, to which Swinson replied: “In a government situation, you have to be able to work with people where you disagree with them ... other leaders around the world.
“I think that’s different to rolling out the red carpet – which is what we have seen this [Conservative] government do.
She added: “Donald Trump does not deserve the honour of the state visit that he had earlier this year.
“He’s not someone who shares our values – he’s demonstrated that through the way in which he’s talked about women, about minorities, the way he’s been separating children from their parents at the border in his own country.”
Trump has in the past described climate change as a “Chinese hoax” and Swinson added that she would challenge him on that particularly, should she have an audience with him.
She said: “This is a man who is denying the science.”
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