Last weekend, a small group of protesters disrupted a speech being given by London Mayor Sadiq Khan to the Fabian Society, a think tank promoting democratic socialism, until police were called in and finally intervened.
One of the protesters carried an American flag along with anti-EU banners. “We want Brexit and we want Trump!” shouted one man as they were escorted out of the hall. The men claimed to be members of a group called the White Pendragons which, according to its social media profile, wants to “take our country back”.
The incident received limited attention. Mr. Khan himself laughed off the incident, and the distraction caused by “what some would call very stable geniuses”, a clear reference to U.S. President Donald Trump’s defence of himself following the publication of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury .
While the protesters’ precise motivations are yet unclear, their action came just days after Mr. Khan, long a vocal critic (and target) of Mr. Trump, spoke out against the President again, following his decision not to visit London. “It appears that President Trump got the message from Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our city’s values of inclusion, diversity, and tolerance,” he said.
Mr. Khan is also a strong critic of the government’s approach to Brexit, campaigning to remain in the single market. A study recently commissioned by his office suggested that a “hard” Brexit will cause sizeable losses to the British economy and job market.
The link between elements of the Trump and Brexit campaigns has long been known. In August 2016, Nigel Farage, the former U.K. Independence Party leader and a Brexit campaigner, joined Mr. Trump at a rally in Mississippi to bring what he described as a “message of hope”, drawing parallels between the two campaigns. “It’s going to be Brexit, plus, plus, plus,” Mr. Trump declared just days before his surprise triumph over Hillary Clinton on November 8. Both campaigns also pushed similar messages, with slogans like “Take control” and “Make America Great Again”, portraying themselves as anti-establishment movements, while at the same time pushing for tougher immigration controls.
Special relationship
Given some of the less positive associations, the British government has long struggled with its approach to the U.S. While Prime Minister Theresa May sought to defend Britain’s relationship with its “most important ally” when she visited Washington DC shortly after Mr. Trump’s inauguration, she was forced to criticise him after he retweeted a message from a British far-right group, whose name had been invoked by the murderer of British Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016. Still the invitation of a state visit to Britain remained open, she insisted, given the two nations’ “long-term special relationship”.
This month’s dramatic developments, when Mr. Trump announced he would no longer visit the U.K. because of his displeasure with the costs of the new embassy, brought things to a head once again. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson lambasted the Labour Party for putting the “crucial” U.K.-U.S. relationship at risk. However, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn questioned whether Britain indeed ever really had the long-touted special relationship with the U.S., pointing to relations with India, China, the EU and international bodies such as the UN as counterpoints.
Vidya Ram works for The Hindu and is based in London
