The mayor of London tore into President Obama Friday for his trip to Britain aimed at persuading government officials that the United Kingdom should remain part of the European Union.
Boris Johnson, a member of the Conservative party, penned a fiery op-ed in The Sun lambasting Obama’s opposition to a British exit from the E.U.
He wrote that the sovereignty and democracy Winston Churchill fought for during World War II was being "stifled" by the E.U. and accused the Obama administration of distancing itself from the former prime minister’s foreign policy realism.
Detailing a discredited story claiming that Obama removed Churchill’s bust from the Oval Office upon taking office in 2009, Johnson said that the president’s "part-Kenyan" "ancestral dislike of the British empire" was likely reason that Churchill’s legacy and fight for sovereignty was dispelled from the White House.
"Some said that perhaps Churchill was seen as less important than he once was. Perhaps his ideas were old-fashioned and out of date," Johnson wrote. "Well, if that’s why Churchill was banished from the Oval Office, they could not have been more wrong."
Politico reported that Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer published a piece in 2012 calling the story "100% false," adding that the bust was outside of the White House’s Treaty Room.
Johnson positioned Churchill’s emphasis on national strength in opposition to the goals of the E.U.
"If you include both primary and secondary legislation, the EU now generates 60 per cent of all the laws that pass through Westminster," he wrote. "We are are giving £20bn a year, or £350m a week, to Brussels—about half of which is spent by EU bureaucrats in this country, and half we never see again."
Control of the U.K.’s borders and trade policy has been lost to Brussels, he continued, adding that the E.U. each year further extends its arm into public policy.
Boris wrote:
It is deeply anti-democratic—and much as I admire the United States, and much as I respect the President, I believe he must admit that his country would not dream of embroiling itself in anything of the kind. The US guards its democracy with more hysterical jealousy than any other country on earth. For the United States to tell us in the UK that we must surrender control of so much of our democracy – it is a breathtaking example of the principle of do-as-I-say-but-not-as-I-do. It is incoherent. It is inconsistent, and yes it is downright hypocritical. The Americans would never contemplate anything like the EU, for themselves or for their neighbours in their own hemisphere. Why should they think it right for us?
Obama, who landed in London Friday for a three-day visit, is meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron to urge the U.K. to stay in the E.U. ahead of the June 23 referendum vote.
In an op-ed published in the Daily Telegraph Thursday, Obama wrote that the U.S. and U.K.’s "special relationship" would be emboldened if Britain remains part of the E.U. He specifically pointed to the multilateral effort to combat the Islamic State terrorist group.
Speaking Friday afternoon at Britain's Foreign Office, Obama said a "Brexit" would place the U.K. at the "back of the queue" in trade talks with the U.S.