Boris vs Hunt: China and Donald Trump loom large in contest for UK’s next PM

Some 170,000 members of the ruling Conservative Party will pick the country’s new leader next week

The winner will have to deal with Brexit, manage Donald Trump and keep Beijing onside for more trade

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, leadership candidates for Britain's Conservative Party. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:29pm, 16 Jul 2019Updated: 8:40pm, 16 Jul 2019

As the UK Conservative Party’s leadership race enters its final days, both candidates – Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and former foreign secretary Boris Johnson – are promising to leave the European Union – even without a deal, if push comes to shove.

But while it was Theresa May’s failure to gain parliamentary approval for her Brexit agreement with Brussels that opened up the contest, the long-term success of whoever wins, if Britain manages to leave the EU, will rest on what kind of trade deals he can cut outside Europe, especially with the US and China.

Johnson is Washington’s favourite candidate. US President Donald Trump has described the fellow wispy blonde Johnson as a friend would make a “great” prime minister.

The New York-born Johnson only gave up his American citizenship a couple of years ago, and that was because of a dual taxation issue.

“Boris Johnson is a friend of mine. He has been very, very nice to me, very supportive,” Trump said in July last year after Johnson resigned foreign secretary over May’s handling of Britain’s attempt to leave the EU.

And despite the recent exchange of words with Beijing over the Hong Kong protests, Hunt, who voted to remain in the EU, will carry more leverage in China – not least because his wife is Chinese.