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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
World
Barney Davis

Which British politicians have backed Trump?

Don’t ever change Nigel - Donald Trump likes Farage just the way he is - (AFP/Getty)

With the votes being counted in a fierce battle for the White House, which British politicians will be celebrating if Donald Trump emerges victorious?

We take a look at the political players both old and new who have rallied for the Republican.

Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage has told his “good friend” Donald Trump to accept the result of the US election if Kamala Harris wins, suggesting the former president should “go and play golf”.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to the former president’s home in Palm Beach, The Reform UK MP told The Telegraph: “If [the result] was clear and decisive then maybe it’s time [for Trump] to go and play golf at Turnberry.”

“It’s all hypothetical and I still think he is going to win”, he added.

The MP for Clacton also called for Democrat Kamala Harris to pardon Trump “to dampen down” the threat of violence if she wins on election night amid a tight presidential race.

It came as Trump hailed Farage at one of his rallies in Pennsylvania on Monday, calling him the “big winner” in the UK general election which Labour won by a landslide.

Trump told the rally: “He has always been my friend for some reason. He likes me, I like him. He is shaking it up pretty good over there. He was the big winner of the last election in the UK.

“He is a very spectacular man, very highly respected. He’s a little bit of a rebel but that’s good - don’t change Nigel.”

Liz Truss

Liz Truss preaches her political during the Conservative Political Action Conference (EPA)

The UK’s shortest-serving prime minister has been on the Conservative right wing tour circuit appearing to reinvent herself as a populist after her disastrous premiership.

Truss endorsed Trump to win this year’s US presidential election, telling the BBC the “world was safer” when he was in the White House.

The former prime minister said the world was “on the cusp of very, very serious conflict” and needed “a strong America more than ever”.

She told the Telegraph: “I do want to see Trump in the White House it’s the most important thing for several decades is this 2024 election in the US.

Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson found himself having to defend Trump’s outlandish comments on social media on more than one occasion.

Donald Trump and Boris Johnson at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Ross Kempsell/PA Wire)

Nevertheless, Boris Johnson, who resigned as an MP in 2023, proved that your best friends were the ones who can stand up to you, telling Donald that his role in the January 6 uprising was wrong.

Even so, he told 60 minutes he still had faith: “I’m actually optimistic about what a Trump presidency could bring.

“Because I think that when it comes to it I think he will not want to begin his presidency as the guy who made the Soviet Empire great again.

In January, Mr Johnson claimed the “global wokerati” were “trembling violently” at the thought of his return.

Kemi Badenoch

Like Trump Kemi Badenoch has also worked in McDonalds (Edward Massey/CCHQ)

The new leader of the Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch was more diplomatic when it came to Trump but was impressed by his electioneering, working in a McDonald’s, the restaurant chain which gave the Tory leadership hopeful her first job.

She told The Independent in October: “I think that if the potential leader of a country, or former leader, is going to places like McDonald’s it is a good thing. It is showing that you understand that not everybody works in a high-flying corporate career or in a white-collar job.

“And it is signalling that you understand their lives. It is signalling that you understand their concerns.”

Robert Jenrick

Her rival Robert Jenrick was less diplomatic in August telling GB News: “If I were an American citizen, I would be voting for Donald Trump.”

More recently, he said: “The Conservative Party has strong and historic links to the Republican Party, so it is natural that we would lean towards Republican candidates.

“It’s clearly going to be a close race. I respect Kamala Harris, I would obviously seek to work productively and constructively with whoever is the next president of the United States.

“I think it’s normal, it is natural for a Conservative to lean towards Republican candidates.”

Suella Braverman

Former home secretary Suella Braverman appears as a guest presenter on LBC (PA Wire)

“I want Trump to be president,” Ms Braverman said while hosting a phone-in programme on LBC Radio.

“If we look at the policy - don’t look at the characters and the personalities - if we look at the policy, I think the world will be safer under Donald Trump.

“If we look at his record as president, you know, no wars were started while Donald Trump was president.”

Ms Braverman said she met Mr Trump while he was president and thought he would be “a good ally” to the UK.

Jacob Rees-Mogg

(Jacob King/PA Wire)

Just before humiliatingly losing his safe seat in Somerset Jacob Rees-Mogg told young Conservative activists he wanted to “build a wall in the English Channel” in a bizarre and unfeasible echo of Trump’s policy on the Mexico border.

He doubled down on his support for the former US president before a pub crawl in March organised by the Young Conservative group.

In a leaked recording, he said: “If I were American I’d want the border closed, I’d be all in favour of building a wall.

“I’d want to build a wall in the middle of the English Channel,” the former cabinet minister said.

Lee Anderson

Lee Anderson has been likened to a “Midlands version” of Donald Trump for his outspoken nature on immigration.

Last month he hit out at Labour activists going to volunteer for Kamala Harris, posting on X: “How to ruin the special relationship.”

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