LONDON: Donald Trump’s pick for running mate, J D Vance, said last week that Britain has become an “Islamist country” under Labour and could be “the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon”.
The 39-year-old Ohio senator had said at a dinner at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington on July 10: “I was talking with a friend about nuclear proliferation.Of course, the Biden administration doesn’t care about it. I was talking about, what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon? We were like, maybe it’s Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we sort of finally decided, maybe it’s actually the UK since Labour just took over.” This was met with applause.
In the same speech Vance, whose wife Usha Chilukuri is of Indian origin, said, “The real threat to American democracy is certainly not Trump — it is that the American voters keep on voting for less immigration and our politicians keep rewarding us with more.” He went on: “If you look at the UK, if non-stop immigration was the way to create wealth and lower home prices, then London would be doing great. I was in London last year and it is not doing so good.”
Angela Rayner, deputy PM, said Vance had “said quite a lot of fruity things in the past” and “she did not recognise that characterisation” of Labour. “We won votes across different communities,” she said, adding she “looked forward” to meeting Vance if Trump wins the election in Nov, adding “it is up to the American people to decide”.
Shadow veterans minister Andrew Bowie said he “absolutely did not think” Labour was creating an Islamist party. “It’s quite offensive frankly to my colleagues in the Labour party.”
Junior minister in the Treasury James Murray said: “I don’t understand what he was driving at. We are very proud of our diversity in Britain.”
Foreign secretary David Lammy, who has boasted he “has been to America more times than he has been to France”, referred to Vance as one of his “friends” in a video he made about a trip to Washington in May which shows the two of them embracing.
The 39-year-old Ohio senator had said at a dinner at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington on July 10: “I was talking with a friend about nuclear proliferation.Of course, the Biden administration doesn’t care about it. I was talking about, what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon? We were like, maybe it’s Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we sort of finally decided, maybe it’s actually the UK since Labour just took over.” This was met with applause.
In the same speech Vance, whose wife Usha Chilukuri is of Indian origin, said, “The real threat to American democracy is certainly not Trump — it is that the American voters keep on voting for less immigration and our politicians keep rewarding us with more.” He went on: “If you look at the UK, if non-stop immigration was the way to create wealth and lower home prices, then London would be doing great. I was in London last year and it is not doing so good.”
Angela Rayner, deputy PM, said Vance had “said quite a lot of fruity things in the past” and “she did not recognise that characterisation” of Labour. “We won votes across different communities,” she said, adding she “looked forward” to meeting Vance if Trump wins the election in Nov, adding “it is up to the American people to decide”.
Shadow veterans minister Andrew Bowie said he “absolutely did not think” Labour was creating an Islamist party. “It’s quite offensive frankly to my colleagues in the Labour party.”
Junior minister in the Treasury James Murray said: “I don’t understand what he was driving at. We are very proud of our diversity in Britain.”
Foreign secretary David Lammy, who has boasted he “has been to America more times than he has been to France”, referred to Vance as one of his “friends” in a video he made about a trip to Washington in May which shows the two of them embracing.