London mayor: Barack Obama a ‘hypocrite’

London mayor Boris Johnson on Monday accused Mr Barack Obama of “hypocrisy” following a report that the US President is heading to Britain next month to make the case for the UK to stay in the European Union.

“Coming from Uncle Sam, it is a piece of outrageous and exorbitant hypocrisy,” Mr Johnson, a leading member of the campaign for Britain to leave the EU in a June referendum, wrote in his regular column for the Daily Telegraph.

“Can you imagine the Americans submitting their democracy to the kind of regime that we have in the EU ” he asked, adding: “This is a nation born from its glorious refusal to accept overseas control.”

Mr Johnson went on to point out that the United States does not accept that its own citizens could be subject to the rulings of the International Criminal Court and does not recognise other jurisdictions.

“In urging us to embed ourselves more deeply in the EU’s federalising structures, the Americans are urging us down a course they would never dream of going themselves,” he wrote.

“That is because they are a nation conceived in liberty. They sometimes seem to forget that we are quite fond of liberty, too.”

The Independent newspaper on Sunday reported that Mr Obama, who has already expressed support for Britain’s EU membership, was expected to come to London at the end of April.

The visit would take place around two months before the June 23 referendum in which British voters will decide whether to leave or stay in the 28-country bloc.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron’s Downing Street office on Monday declined to comment on the report.

“Other people will set out their views, the choice for the British people is whether or not they listen to them but then they get to make up their own minds,” she said.

But on a visit to Brussels, British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said it was important to hear from other countries as part of the debate ahead of the vote. “I think it’s important that we hear from those people in the Anglosphere, not just President Obama,” he said.