Barack Obama should open up America’s border with Mexico before giving advice to the UK on the upcoming EU referendum, former Defence Secretary Liam Fox sniped today.
The Tory MP hit back at the US President for claiming the UK needed to stay in the European Union to maintain its influence on the world stage.
Dr Fox today rebuffed President Obama’s comments, which were made last June, and even suggest the EU itself was guilty of “pernicious anti-Americanism” when it came to defence.
The Somerset North MP was one of a number of leading eurosceptics who appeared at a Brexit conference in Westminster this afternoon discussing how Britain would manage itself if the public voted to leave in referendum.
After claiming that it was Nato, not the EU, which had led to more than 60 years of peace in Europe, Dr Fox said: “The next time the American president wants to give us advice about remaining in the EU, which of course he’s free to do, he can do it when he has an open border with Mexico and a Supreme Court that can override their own Supreme Court.”
He added: “The Americans need to understand that there is a pernicious anti-Americanism in a great deal of this policy to push EU defence.
“It’s not just pushing the EU into the space, it’s pushing America out, and that is to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of threat we face in the world around us.”
The event also saw Ukip leader Nigel Farage launch an attack on fellow eurosceptics who did not want to focus the Leave campaign on immigration concerns.