David Lammy has defended calling Donald Trump a neo-Nazi sociopath, saying all politicians had something to say about the former US president “back in the day”.
When he was a backbench MP in 2018, the now-foreign secretary wrote in Time magazine of the then-American leader: “Trump is not only a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath. He is also a profound threat to the international order that has been the foundation of Western progress for so long.”
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Mr Lammy, who may now have to work with Mr Trump’s administration if the Republican presidential nominee is elected once again in November, was asked if he stands by those comments.
He told Sky News: “You are going to struggle to find any politician who didn’t have things to say about Donald Trump back in the day.”
The Tottenham MP said that he has been to Washington DC eight times in his capacity shadow foreign secretary, and now foreign secretary following Labour’s landslide election victory.
Former President Donald Trump. Pic: AP
“I meet with Republicans and Democrats, many close to Trump, and we will work with whomever the United States choose to put in the White House and become their next president,” he said.
He added that he has previously met with Mr Trump’s vice presidential nominee, JD Vance, and that they have been able to find “common ground”.
“We’re both from poor backgrounds, both suffered from addiction issues in our family which we’ve written about… both of us Christians. And now I’ve met him on a few occasions, and we have been able to find common ground and get on,” he said.
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JD Vance Pic: AP
However, he said he does not recognise the comments Mr Vance made by suggesting that the UK could be the “first Islamist nation with nuclear weapons” under Labour.
Mr Vance made the remarks last week at the National Conservatism conference in Washington DC, also attended by former home secretary Suella Braverman.
Government ministers have dismissed the remarks but stopped short of outwardly criticising Mr Vance, who will become vice president if Mr Trump wins the election in November.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said of Mr Vance’s comments that she did not “recognise that characterisation” while defence secretary John Healey said nobody in Britain would “recognise that caricature”.
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Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government have been keen to stress that they will work with whoever the US electorate returns to the White House to protect the so-called US/UK “special relationship”.
Mr Trump selected Mr Vance, a 39-year-old former venture capitalist and senator from Ohio, as his running mate just days after he was targeted in an assassination attempt on Saturday.