Obama to Brits: Stay in the European Union

As the vote in Britain regarding continuing membership in the EU approaches — the “Brexit” — the last thing the Brits need is advice from Barack Obama. But it looks like they’re going to get it, good and hard:

US President Barack Obama will urge British voters to remain in the European Union during a visit to London in April, it was reported, drawing an angry reaction from Brexit campaigners. Mr Obama has previously said he wants Britain to stay in the EU and help maintain the post-war transatlantic partnership. Most opinion polls show voters are split with a large number of people as yet undecided.

The US president is scheduled to attend a technology fair in Germany on April 24 and a No 10 source told the Independent on Sunday he would visit London around that time. “It would be pretty shocking if he didn’t ask voters to stay in the EU,” the source was quoted as saying. The White House declined to comment. Downing Street said no visit had been announced and it would not comment on “speculation”.

Of course it won’t — it’s probably working on the speech right now.

The reported visit would come amid strained relations between the two countries after Mr Obama criticised the Prime Minister’s handling of Libya. He said Mr Cameron had got too “distracted by a range of other things” in the wake of Muammar Gaddafi’s ouster to help contain the crisis.

Mr Obama also said that the MPs’ rejection of airstrikes in Syria had influenced his decision not to enforce the “red line” he had drawn over the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons.

Bob Corker, the chairman of the US Senate foreign relations committee, said last month that Mr Obama was planning “a big, public reach-out” to convince voters in Britain to stay in the EU when they decide in the June 23 referendum, the newspaper said.

Members of the Leave campaign reacted angrily to Mr Obama’s reported intervention. “Why should President Obama tell the UK whether we should be part of a European superstate or a sovereign nation?” Peter Bone, a Conservative MP who is prominent in the Leave campaign, told the newspaper. “He should keep his comments, his views, to himself.”

Since when has he ever done that? Remember that he is the Perfect Man, and nothing he does can ever be wrong.