Ex-UK PM Boris Johnson praises Trump for 'brave and principled' 50% tariffs on India

TOI correspondent from London : Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a close friend of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, has described US president Donald Trump ’s 50% tariff on India as “brave, principled and logical”.

He wrote on X: “After three years it is Donald J Trump who has finally made India pay a price for enabling Putin’s butchery. When will Britain and the rest of Europe have the guts to do the same?”

This led to a barrage of criticism on X from Indians, with one saying: “He can’t even comb his hair.”

The Daily Telegraph followed with an editorial on Thursday calling on UK PM Keir Starmer to follow the American lead “and get tough with Putin’s enablers”. It said: “The subcontinental superpower’s imports of Moscow’s crude oil fill Putin’s coffers to the tune of £41 billion (about Rs 4.8 lakh crore) annually. Choking off this lucrative source of revenue for the Kremlin could open up a real chance of peace in Ukraine”.

Downing Street refused comment.

But journalist Owen Matthews criticised the tariffs in his Telegraph op-ed, writing: “Trump’s imposition of tariffs on India is unfair and unworkable — not least because it’s Europe, not India or China, which remains both the world’s biggest importer of Russian energy in dollar terms, as well as the biggest contributor to Putin’s war chest. Yet Europe has not been threatened by Trump — nor for that matter have US allies Turkey and Japan, also major customers of Moscow’s gas. If India were to stop buying Russian crude, a worldwide oil price panic would quickly follow.”