In an impassioned appeal — that unsurprisingly has not been received well by the U.K.’s Brexit campaign-isiting U.S. President Barack Obama has urged British citizens to vote to stay in the European Union in the referendum on June 23. He said a united Europe, which turned “centuries of war in Europe into decades of peace”, must preserve its “remarkable legacy.”
In what is likely to be his last visit to the U.K. as President, Mr. Obama set the tone for his three-day visit in an exclusive article in the Daily Telegraph . In the piece, he referred to the “special relationship” forged between the two countries “as we spilt blood together on the battlefield” and subsequently “fortified as we built and sustained the architecture for advancing stability and prosperity in Europe”.
He placed the EU in the class of post-war international institutions and initiatives like the United Nations, Bretton Woods, the Marshall Plan and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Mr. Obama told British citizens that they should be “proud that the EU has helped spread British values and practices — democracy, the rule of law, open markets — across the continent and to its periphery”.
Mr. Obama and wife Michelle had lunch with the Queen in Windsor castle — an occasion, he said, to wish the Queen Elizabeth II whose 90th birthday was celebrated on Thursday. Mr. Obama later met Prime Minister David Cameron for talks on the referendum and other issues.
Popular President The appeal by Mr. Obama will come as an enormous boost for the ‘Stay’ campaign, especially in the light of the very small margin with which it leads over the Brexit group in opinion polls. With almost one-third of the electorate still undecided, Mr. Obama’s intervention may help sway votes to the ‘Remain’ side.
The U.S. President is a popular figure in the U.K. A recent four-part documentary on BBC on his presidency is a flattering one, showing the President as a progressive and reflective thinker whose initiatives on healthcare, immigration, terrorism, war and peace were thwarted by the right-wing opposition in his country.
Boris attacks Barack London Mayor and the lead campaigner for the Brexit campaign Boris Johnson retaliated in an equally strong reply in the British tabloid The Sun . Reaching back to the World War II and Mr. Obama’s references to it, he said then British prime minister Winston Churchill — whose bust, he claims, was removed from the Oval Office when Mr. Obama became President — was “fighting for British survival”.
The U.K. was not merely contributing over £20 billion each month to the EU kitty, it has also lost control over its borders and its right to determine its public policy, a surrender that the U.S. would never make, he said. “The Americans would never contemplate anything like the EU, for themselves or their neighbours in their own hemisphere. Why do they think it is right for us?” he asked.
Mr. Johnson, who mentioned Mr. Obama’s part-Kenyan ancestry in the article, has attracted online criticism for the racist overtones of his comment.
