Hillary Clinton also wants Britain to stay in the EU

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton celebrates victory in the New York state primary on April 19, 2016 in New York City. PHOTO: AFP

LONDON/WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - US Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton wants Britain to stay in the European Union, her campaign said on Saturday (April 23), following an intervention from US President Barack Obama who urged Britons to vote to remain.

"Hillary Clinton believes that transatlantic cooperation is essential, and that cooperation is strongest when Europe is united. She has always valued a strong United Kingdom in a strong EU. And she values a strong British voice in the EU," Clinton senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement provided to Reuters.

Clinton, who spent four years as US secretary of state during Obama's first term, has made her foreign policy credentials a central piece of her campaign for president in the November 2016 race for the White House.

Clinton's position on the EU was first reported by Britain's Observer newspaper.

Obama, who will leave Britain on Sunday (April 24), sparked a row during his three-day trip by bluntly telling Britain it should remain in the European Union to preserve its remaining global clout.

He angered critics of the EU on Friday (April 22) by warning that Britain would be at "the back of the queue" for a trade deal if it left the club - one of the strongest US interventions in the affairs of a western European democracy since the Cold War.

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