Lending political backup to a struggling friend, President Barack Obama made an impassioned plea to Britons to heed Prime Minister David Cameron's call to stay in the European Union and dismissed critics who accused the US president of meddling in British affairs.
Speaking at a press conference at 10 Downing Street, Obama told reporters that Britain's power is amplified by its membership in the 28-nation union, not diminished. He made an almost sentimental appeal to the "special relationship" between the two countries. And he said cast a grim picture of the economic stakes saying flatly the US would not rush to write a free trade deal with a newly independent Great Britain.
"Let me be clear, ultimately this is something that the British voters have to decide for themselves but ... Part of being friends is to be honest and to let you know what I think," he said. "It affects our prospect as well. The United States wants a strong United Kingdom as a partner."
Obama spoke on the first day of a three-day visit to London, likely the last of this presidency. The visit comes two months before a June referendum on leaving the union. Polls suggest it will be a close-fought race, with most phone polls indicating a lead for the Remain campaign while some online polls put the Leave camp ahead.
Obama described the votes as potentially damaging to the British economy. He said the US is focused on writing a massive trade agreement with the European Union and would not prioritize a bilateral agreement with the UK. Britain would have to get "in the back of the queue," he said.
As he landed yesterday night, the president laid out his arguments in an op-ed in a London newspaper, harkening back to the "special relationship" forged by wartime allies President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. With that special status comes with leeway to interfere, Obama argued, writing that he was offering his thoughts with the "candor of a friend."
Obama's candor wasn't universally appreciated. In increasingly heated language, critics accused Obama of meddling in British business. Former London Mayor Boris Johnson, the head of the Leave campaign called Obama's advice "paradoxical, inconsistent, incoherent" and suggested Obama's background played a role.
