Boris Johnson holds late-night talks with Donald Trump at No10
BORIS Johnson held late night one-on-one talks with President Trump at Downing Street last night - despite the PM trying to keep his distance from his ally in public ahead of the election.
The pair were snapped this morning together at NATO meetings happening this week, but they held discussions behind closed doors yesterday instead of public talks.
The PM wants to avoid being seen to be too pally with President Trump for fear his opponents could jump on it as an attack ahead of polling day next week.
Yesterday the President leapt into the election discussion by saying he could "work with anyone" but praised Boris as a "great guy".
He also said that America wouldn't want the NHS if it were offered to them "on a silver platter" - shutting down one of Jeremy Corbyn's main attack lines.
"The prime minister met President Trump this evening at Downing Street,” a No. 10 Downing Street spokesman said.
"They looked forward to tomorrow’s NATO leaders’ meeting and reflected on the importance of the alliance to our shared security.”
The spokesman added: “The leaders welcomed the recent increases in defence spending by NATO member states and agreed on the need for the alliance to be unified in the face of new and evolving threats."
This morning Johnson said he had a "very good" bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump last night.
"We discussed the future of Nato, we discussed what is going on in Syria and various other matters," he said as he arrived in Watford for high-level discussions with world leaders.
Boris heaped praise on the 70-year-old alliance this morning.
"One for all, all for one, that's the core of the NATO security guarantee. It works," he said.
"It provides peace and security for hundreds of millions of people, but we cannot be complacent.
"We continue to invest 2% of GDP on defence.
"We are taking NATO forward to develop the alliance and combat new threats in cyber space and space itself."
MOST READ IN POLITICS
Leaders are expected to have a family photo this morning ahead of discussions.
Boris Johnson, Nato boss Jens Stoltenberg and President Trump will have separate press conferences later this afternoon before the events wrap up.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.