The Washington Post newspaper has claimed that “British lawmakers” are calling Prime Minister Theresa May’s visit to the United States “embarrassing”, propping up their headline with a quote from the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament Vince Cable.
In the piece entitled “British lawmakers tell their prime minister: Your groveling in front of Trump is embarrassing”, author Griff White leans on just six tweets from four left wing Members of Parliament and two retired Liberal Democrat politicians to stand up his claim that British lawmakers are horrified by Mrs. May’s trip to meet President Donald Trump this week.
The privilege of being the first foreign leader to meet with the U.S. President since his inauguration is usually one celebrated and lauded. But for the Washington Post, the trip is now to be framed as an embarrassment to Britain.
WaPo reports:
But as she was winging across the Atlantic on Thursday, she also faced a wicked backlash in London from lawmakers who say her courting of the new U.S. president has gone too far.
The criticism came after Downing Street released excerpts from a speech May intends to deliver Thursday at a retreat for Republican congressmen in Philadelphia. Trump is also due to address the gathering.
In her speech, May seems to endorse Trump’s view of himself as a turnaround artist who can restore America to lost greatness. Both the United States and Britain, she is due to tell the Republicans, are “rediscover[ing] our confidence.”
The piece goes on to cite critical messages from the following MPs and former politicians:
- Ed Miliband, former leader of the Labour Party and avowed socialist;
- Vince Cable, former Deputy/Acting leader of the Liberal Democrat party;
- Vernon Coaker, a Labour MP who supports nuclear disarmament;
- Yvette Cooper, a Labour MP who demanded open borders for refugees and migrants to Britain;
- Paddy Ashdown, a House of Lords member who led the Liberal Democrats several decades ago;
- Sarah Wollaston, a ‘Conservative’ MP who opposed Brexit and supports minimum alcohol pricing and is “strongly pro choice”.
For the Washington Post, this is indicative of a broad enough cross-section of MPs to support an entire news item on the subject.
The four MPs named represent just 0.6 per cent of the British Parliament, which presently has 649 sitting MPs after the resignation of Labour’s Tristram Hunt and the forthcoming Stoke by-election.