Tory nerves spared after Trump cancels Nato press conference as summit ends in acrimony

The summit at a plush country hotel in Watford to mark the western alliance’s 70th anniversary began acrimoniously with Mr Trump condemning the “very nasty” statement from Emmanuel Macron – the French President had described Nato as “brain dead” – and it ended with more bad blood.

A group of leaders, including Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, the Dutch premier, Boris Johnson and Mr Macron as well as Princess Anne were caught on camera mocking Mr Trump at a Buckingham Palace reception the night before.

The conversation was picked up by a stray microphone during which Mr Trudeau could be heard telling his fellow leaders about Mr Trump: “He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top.” Later, he quipped: “You just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor.”

Yesterday, a stern-faced US President did not take kindly to his Canadian counterpart’s comments, branding him “two-faced”.

He announced the scrapping of his press conference on social media, tweeting: “When today’s meetings are over, I will be heading back to Washington. We won’t be doing a press conference at the close of NATO because we did so many over the past two days. Safe travels to all!”

Later, Mr Trudeau told reporters the leaders had not been laughing about Mr Trump's press conference but, rather, about the location of the next G7 summit; Camp David, the US presidential country retreat.

"I have a very good relationship with Trump," insisted the Canadian premier.

At his own press conference, the Prime Minister appeared bewildered when he was quizzed about his laughing at Mr Trump’s expense during the exchanges at the royal reception.

Asked if he took the President seriously, Mr Johnson declared: “That’s complete nonsense. I don’t know where that’s come from.”

During the question and answer session with journalists, the PM was asked about the leaked UK-US trade talk papers, which Jeremy Corbyn insisted proved that the NHS would be “on the table” in any post-Brexit trade talks with Washington.

Visibly irritated, Mr Johnson let out a loud sigh of exasperation, insisting: “Everyone by now has rumbled this nonsense.”

The day before, Mr Trump had sought to give as categoric a statement as he could that the US would not be interested in including the NHS in a future transatlantic trade deal. “If you handed it to us on a silver platter, we’d want nothing to do with it,” he declared.

To Westminster-watchers, it seemed the President had complied with the wishes of Tory HQ; he had sought to rubbish Labour’s NHS-for-sale claims and he avoided the elephant trap of a high-profile press conference.

But earlier in the day, John McDonnell continued to suspect the wool was being pulled over the eyes of British voters, telling a campaign event in Birmingham that “all the evidence” pointed to the NHS being on the table in trade talks and asserting that the President had a “passing relationship with reality and truth”.

The summit itself consisted of just three hours of discussion, covering Syria, Russia, China, cyber-security and space.

While the future of the 29-member alliance is not in doubt, disagreements cast a pall over the 70th birthday get-together. These included Turkey's recent military action in northern Syria, its multi-billion pound arms deal with Russia, the levels of defence spending below two per cent of GDP by some member states and Mr Macron’s "brain dead" comment.

Despite the divisions, Mr Johnson – who hosted the event – hailed Nato as a "giant shield of solidarity," which protected almost one billion people.

"As long as we stand together, no-one can hope to defeat us," he declared.

Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s Secretary-General, pointed out there had always been disagreements within the alliance since its inception in 1949 and that given there were 29 members it could not be otherwise. But, he stressed, that when it mattered Nato was united.

He cited increased defence spending commitments by European allies and Canada, pointing out how these countries had added £100bn to defence budgets since 2016 and that this amount would increase to £300bn by 2024.

"Nato is the most successful alliance in history because we've changed as the world has changed," insisted Mr Stoltenberg.

At his press conference, the PM also dropped a heavy hint that if he were returned to office, he would not give a role to the Chinese tech giant Huawei in building the UK’s 5G network.

He said: “I don’t want this country to be unnecessarily hostile to investment from overseas. On the other hand, we cannot prejudice our vital national security nor can we prejudice our ability to co-operate with other five-eyes security partners. That will be the key criterion…”

His comments came after Nato leaders had committed to ensuring the security of their telecommunications infrastructure, including 5G, and to using only "secure and resilient systems". Mr Trump also made clear the US considered any involvement by Huawei to be a "security danger".

Meanwhile on the issue of returning foreign fighters from Syria, Mr Johnson said: “If people go to fight in Syria, they are putting themselves beyond UK law and they abdicate their rights to be citizens of this country; we’ve made that very clear.”

Last night on ITV’s Peston, the PM insisted everyone would stop talking about Brexit after January if he was returned to power.

“We will have got Brexit done and you will find…the parliamentary agony will be over and the political agony will be over and the misery and tedium and procrastination that’s been going on…”

In other developments –

*Today, Mr Johnson set out his action plan for the first 100 days of a new Conservative Government, which could include: delivering a post-Brexit Budget in February to cut taxes for hardworking families; changing the law to end the automatic release of serious violent and sexual offenders at the half way point; launching the biggest defence and security review since the end of the Cold War; starting cross-party talks to find an enduring solution to the challenge of social care and finalising an agreement with mobile phone operators to improve mobile service in the countryside.

Declaring this election to be the most important in a generation, Mr Johnson said it would “define if we go forward as a country or remain stuck, stalled, repeating the same arguments of the last three years with…yet another gridlocked hung Parliament”.

*Labour has accused Tory policies of being "directly responsible" for people living and dying on the streets as it set out plans to end rough-sleeping in England within five years. Saving lives this winter, it said, would become a "moral mission" if the party won power, setting out a multibillion-pound package to tackle the crisis.

Official figures show that since 2010, rough-sleeping has more than doubled while the number of people dying while homeless increased to 726 south of the border last year.

*The Liberal Democrats launched a plan for business that would include a £17bn research and development fund.

*Labour’s John McDonnell claimed Labour’s nationalisation programme “could save families over £6,700 a year”.

*Nigel Farage, the Brexit Party leader, told a rally in Nottinghamshire: “I am more bullish and optimistic about Brexit than I have ever been at any point in my life.”

*Left-leaning magazine, the New Statesman, said Mr Corbyn was "unfit to be Prime Minister" because of the handling of anti-Semitism in the party and the leader’s stance on Brexit.

*An Extinction Rebellion protester glued himself to the windscreen of the Lib Dem campaign battle bus. Jo Swinson, the party leader, pointed out the irony given the bus was electric.

*Mr Corbyn, asked if he watched the Queen’s traditional broadcast on Christmas Day, replied: “It's on in the morning, usually we have it on some of the time." When it was pointed out it was broadcast at 3pm, he added: “I enjoy the presence of my family and friends around Christmas, obviously, like everyone does. And I also visit the homeless shelter."