Trump says Johnson would do 'great job' as British PM

US President Donald Trump said Friday that Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to be Britain's next prime minister, would do a "great job" in the post after the pair had a telephone conversation.

"I like him," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I spoke to him yesterday." "He is going to do a great job," the Republican president added.

"We get along well." Johnson is tipped to replace Theresa May as prime minister next week, when the results of a postal ballot by the governing Conservative Party are revealed.

Trump renewed his long-standing criticisms of May, saying she had done "a very poor job" of taking Britain out of the EU and predicting that Brexit hardliner Johnson would fix the "disaster."