Theresa May to liken Brexit to Trump’s victory
The United Kingdom and the United States will “lead together again,” as Britain prepares to exit the European Union and Donald Trump becomes the American president, British Prime Minister Theresa May is set to say before meeting him.
During the annual congressional Republican Retreat in Philadelphia, May will make the remarks ahead of meeting the US new president, according to a Downing Street released on Wednesday.
The two countries will work to “renew the special relationship,” May will say, likening the support for Brexit and Trump in the two countries.
“The United Kingdom is by instinct and history a great, global nation that recognizes its responsibilities to the world,” the British premier will say. “And as we end our membership of the European Union – as the British people voted with determination and quiet resolve to do last year – we have the opportunity to reassert our belief in a confident, sovereign and Global Britain, ready to build relationships with old friends and new allies alike.”
She will also emphasize that a stronger UK-US relationship is “important not only to Britain and America but to the world.”
“So as we rediscover our confidence together – as you renew your nation just as we renew ours – we have the opportunity – indeed the responsibility – to renew the special relationship for this new age. We have the opportunity to lead, together, again.”
In a landmark referendum held on June 23, 2015, nearly 52 percent of British voters, amounting to more than 17 million citizens, opted to leave the EU.
The shocking decision was followed by the election of Donald Trump as the US president on November 8, 2016, triggering speculations that the two votes are part of a bigger pattern of rise in Western populism and nationalism.
