WHILE serving as prime minister Boris Johnson told Donald Trump that conversations between the pair about privatising the NHS shouldn’t occur in public.
Before a meeting with the then president in December 2019, Johnson reportedly told Trump that they could talk about selling off the health service “all you like in private” but that they should “keep it to ourselves”.
According to a new book, Johnson at 10: The Inside Story, which details Johnson’s time in Downing Street, his election managers were worried that Trump would sing the praises of privatisation during a visit to the UK.
The book’s authors, Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell, wrote in The Times that Johnson told Trump: “Some people in my party and other parties might make mischief if you talk about doing that, Donald “Let’s talk about it all you like in private when you’re here, but we can keep it to ourselves.”
The meeting in December was the pair’s first “proper” conversation since Trump’s appearance at the G7 in Biarritz, where the US President argued that Russia should be readmitted to the group.
The authors claim that Trump viewed Johnson as an ally in the rise of right-wing populism in the West and told him: “We’ve got the world by the balls, Boris: what can we do?”.
A member of Johnson’s team in London is also quoted as saying that Trump viewed the prime minister as a “mini-me”
They said: “It was obvious to us that Trump liked him, loved the Churchill patter, and saw him as a mini-me, all a bit awkward for Boris.”
During his time as prime minister, Johnson repeatedly denied that he had any intention of privatising portions of the NHS despite previously expressed support for an “insurance-based” system.
