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Donald AssetThe choice of The vice-president caused fury by describing the UK under Labour as an ‘Islamist country’ with nuclear weapons.
Author and Ohio Senator JD Vance was announced as Mr. Trump’s running mate Monday, just two days after an assassination attempt on the former president, who is challenging Joe Biden for the White House in November.
Politicians from across the political spectrum condemned Mr Vance’s comments, with former Conservative Party co-chair Sayeeda Warsi suggesting the UK-US special relationship was “no more than a racist joke”. Write for The IndependentShe added: “This portends really dangerous times ahead.”
Labour MP Rosie Duffield said Mr Vance had made “a quite blatantly ignorant and racist comment”, while Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: “We have to call this out for what it is, it’s Islamophobic.”
In a speech at the National Conference on Conservatism in Washington, D.C., Mr. Vance recounted a conversation with a friend.
“I was talking about the question: which country is going to be the first truly Islamist country to get nuclear weapons?” he said. “Maybe it’s going to be Iran, maybe Pakistan is already there, and then we’ve finally decided that it’s actually going to be the UK – because Labour has just come to power.”
Even the leader of the British Reform Party, Nigel Farage, a supporter and friend of Mr Trump, disagreed but warned: “The truth is that the Islamists are not in the Labour Party but outside it and that will cost them the next general election.”
Mr. Vance’s Comments greeted with a chorus of laughter from the crowd.
Mr Vance told the audience: “The leaders of the United States should look out for the Americans… and the leaders of the United Kingdom should look out for the citizens of the United Kingdom or the subjects, or whatever you want to call them.”
He said the Labour government had made Britain the “first truly Islamist country to acquire nuclear weapons”.
“To our conservative friends, I have to say that you have to take control of the situation,” he said.
The intervention comes just weeks after Foreign Secretary David Lammy visited Mr Vance in the United States.
In a promotional clip, Mr Lammy said he was “meeting with senior White House officials and friends” before being filmed kissing and shaking hands with Mr Vance.
Baroness Warsi, the first Muslim to sit in a British cabinet, said Mr Vance’s comments represented “the everyday Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism that is casually used by some of the most powerful in our societies”.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner told ITV: Hello Britain:”I think he’s said a lot of fruity things in the past too.
“I don’t recognise that characterisation. I’m very proud of the recent electoral success of the Labour Party. We won votes across all communities, across the country. And we want to govern on behalf of Britain and work with our international allies as well.
“So I look forward to that meeting, if that’s the outcome, and it’s up to the American people to decide.”
She added: “I think political leaders around the world all have different views, but we govern in the interests of our countries. And the United States is a key ally of ours, and if the American people decide who their president and vice president are going to be, we will work with them, of course we will.”
“And I’m sure they’ll have their views on what we’re doing and what we’re proposing, and we’ll work together constructively. I look forward to those meetings and I’m glad I can do that. That’s adult politics. That’s what we do.”
Andrew Bowie, shadow minister for veterans, told Times Radio: “I fundamentally disagree with the Labour Party on many issues, but I disagree with this view, quite frankly. I think it’s actually quite offensive, frankly, to my colleagues in the Labour Party.”
Greens co-leader Carla Denyer told the BBC: Live Politics“We need to call this behavior out for what it is: Islamophobia. It is troubling that the United States has a president who is a convicted felon and a vice president who is more aligned with Russian foreign policy than with support for Ukraine.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer James Murray said: “I did hear that comment, and I don’t know what he meant by it, to be honest. I mean, in Britain we’re very proud of our diversity.”
“I’m very proud that we have a new government. I’m very proud that our Labour government is committed to national security and economic growth.”
Norwich South Labour MP Clive Lewis said: The Independent:”I think it shows that we now need to prepare for the worst-case scenario of a Trump/Vance presidency.
“We see this kind of far-right politics, not just in America but all over Europe, whether it’s the National Rally in France, Meloni in Italy, what’s happening in the Netherlands or Reformation in the UK.
“There is no doubt that Vance’s comments were aimed at the kind of Islamophobic sentiments that we have seen online and elsewhere, particularly directed at Sadiq Khan. We saw that with Reform.”
He said Labour must prepare the country’s institutions to ensure they are “robust and strong enough to be able to withstand an onslaught from the far right if they come to power”.
He added: “We must play a leading role internationally to show that social democratic values work and remain strong.
“Of course, we’ve seen the likes of Suella Braverman at the same conference where Vance spoke and Liz Truss who didn’t respond to Tommy Robinson’s glowing comments. She’s actually at the Republican National Convention this week.”
Muslim Council of Britain general secretary Zara Mohammed said: “They are a stark reminder of how populist and Islamophobic sentiment is being used to garner votes.
“Closer to home, we have seen this language echoed by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and former Conservative deputy leader and current Reform MP Lee Anderson.
“Such inflammatory rhetoric has no place in our politics and should be called out for what it is by our government.”
Suella Braverman was among the other speakers at the NatCon conference.
Last year, Ms Braverman was accused of inciting the far right when she described pro-Palestinian protests in the UK as “hate marches” and called for protesters to be banned from demonstrating on Armistice Day, when a far-right crowd gathered and was involved in skirmishes with police.
A spokesperson for the Muslim The British Association said The Independent at the time that Ms Braverman’s comments had created “a lot of fear among some Muslim communities” who saw them as a direct attack on their solidarity with Palestinians, many of whom are also Muslim.
Reform MP Lee Anderson, who was expelled from the Conservative Party for Islamophobic comments about London Mayor Sadiq Khan, said: “We are not an Islamist country but we have Islamists living here which is a major concern. I am really worried about the future of our country as these extremists continue to grow in number. We are moving into dangerous territory.”