Some Conservative MPs have rallied round Theresa May, accusing Donald Trump of being unstatesmanlike and bad-mannered after he gave an extraordinary newspaper interview criticising the prime minister during a working visit.



"Where are your manners, Mr President?" tweeted Sam Gyimah, the UK's minister for higher education, after Trump's interview with The Sun threw the British government's painstakingly-made plans into disarray.

However, Eurosceptics in May's party defended Trump's intervention and urged their prime minister to heed the president's warning that her softer new Brexit strategy will wreck the UK's chances of getting a free-trade deal with the US.

Priti Patel, who was a member of May's cabinet until November, told BuzzFeed News: "The United States is our closest ally and the country we trade most with. As we leave the EU we need to establish a strong trading partnership with them but the comments from the president ... shows how difficult it will be to get that deal with the current proposals and Britain remaining as an EU rule-taker."

"The government has an opportunity to look again at its approach on post-Brexit trade otherwise we will not be able to get the trade deals with the USA and other countries across the world that we need," Patel added.