Chuka Umunna has warned that an election win for Boris Johnson would represent a further victory for populist rightwing nationalists such as Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán, saying the prime minister’s dishonesty and prejudice made him unfit for No 10.
Umunna, who speaks on foreign affairs for the Liberal Democrats, used a speech to liken Johnson to leaders also including Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, saying they shared “a certain type of politics – rightwing, conservative, nationalist and authoritarian”.
He also further acknowledged the Lib Dems’ position would be at least to prevent a Conservative majority, saying voters should bear in mind “the parliamentary arithmetic” of the next House of Commons over issues such as Brexit.
Speaking in Watford, a seat the Lib Dems say they can win and the venue for next week’s Nato summit, which Trump will attend, Umunna cited the US president as epitomising this new type of populist, rightwing politics.
“It is Trump perhaps more than any other who has taken this politics mainstream in the western world,” he said. “In his words and deeds he has been unafraid to engage in bigoted, racist, sexist and Islamophobic behaviour, to lie and to break the law.
“All the same criticisms apply to the UK’s prime minister, who is following the Trump playbook and has become part of this global network of rightwing, authoritarian nationalists.”
It was Trump who “gave the order” for the Conservatives to ally themselves with the Brexit party, Umunna said: “Nigel Farage obliged, and so it has come to pass, with Farage claiming yesterday [Sunday] that the 2019 Tory manifesto is a copy of Ukip’s 2015 number.”
Answering questions after the speech, the former Labour MP, who is contesting the Cities of London and Westminster seat for the Lib Dems, confirmed he believed Johnson was not fit to be prime minister, and called for more examination of his character.
“I am worried that you can say and do the things that Boris Johnson has done, and for people to simply dismiss it as a factor that is priced in, in this general election,” Umunna said.
“I am alarmed that somebody can spew out the range of prejudice that has flowed from his mouth during his time in public office, and lie, again and again and again. It should be an issue in a general election.”
If Johnson wins the election and takes the UK out of the EU in January, the PM would be even more reliant on Trump, and the UK would become “a vassal state of the US”, he said.
It would also most likely mean the UK leaving the post-Brexit transition period at the end of 2020 with no deal, he said: “In order to stop this calamity, and for the numbers to add up, to stop Brexit in a new House of Commons, at the very least we must reduce the numbers of Conservative MPs.”
He added: “As the last parliament illustrated, what matters is the parliamentary arithmetic, not the wishes of any minority government. Every Liberal Democrat MP and the full weight of our party will be thrown behind remain in that scenario. The other scenario is that Boris Johnson is given a majority, allowing him to more or less do as he pleases.”