Senior Labour MP Emily Thornberry defends calling Donald Trump a ‘racist sexist predator’ and says the UK should not ‘hold hands’ with ‘bullies’_Nhy
A senior Labour MP today defended branding Donald Trump a ‘racist sexist predator’, and warned that the UK should not ‘hold hands’ with bullies.
Emily Thornberry refused to disown remarks made when she was Jeremy Corbyn‘s shadow foreign secretary at the time of a state visit to the UK by the former and future US president in 2019.
Mr Corbyn refused to attend the visit, with Ms Thornberry telling the BBC at the time: ‘A state visit is an honor, and we don’t think that this president deserves an honor. He is a sexual predator, he is a racist, and it’s right to say that.’
Today Ms Thornberry, who became chairwoman of the Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee after missing out on a job in Sir Keir Starmer‘s government, stood by her remarks, telling Times Radio: ‘I believe them to be true.’
And she said that while Labour should work with the incoming Republican administration Labour figures should be ‘clear about our values… and we should stand up to bullies and we shouldn’t hold their hands’.
The latter appeared to be a reference to the infamous times Trump held the hand of then PM Theresa May when they met in the US and Britain.
She is the latest senior Labour figure to be challenged over past criticism of Trump. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has also declined to apologise for remarks he made.
And today Chief Treasury Secretary Darren Jones squirmed on television as comments he made in 2016 were read out.
Mr Corbyn refused to attend the visit, with Ms Thornberry telling the BBC at the time: ‘A state visit is an honor, and we don’t think that this president deserves an honor. He is a sexual predator, he is a racist, and it’s right to say that.’
And she said that while Labour should work with the incoming Republican administration Labour figures should be ‘clear about our values… and we should stand up to bullies and we shouldn’t hold their hands’.
The latter appeared to be a reference to the infamous times Trump held the hand of then PM Theresa May when they met in the US and Britain.
In 2016, before he became an MP, Mr Jones said that ‘repugnant’ Trump’s first election win ‘spells a much longer term problem for the centre left of politics than it does just for the outcome of this presidential term’.
He responded by saying: ‘We can all go through line by line what people have said in the past.’
Tory shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel was also grilled by the BBC over her past criticism of Trump’s actions after the January 6 Capitol riots.
She had said in January 2021 that Mr Trump’s comments ‘directly led to the violence’.
This morning she told the BBC her comments while Home Secretary were ‘absolutely right and fair.
Asked if she wants to apologise for what she said in 2021, Dame Priti told the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: ‘That was a major, major situation. I was home secretary at the time then and we were obviously working with our US counterparts on security issues.
‘No-one wants to see violence after elections.’
In 2021, Dame Priti said Mr Trump’s statement following the events at the Capitol in which he said ‘we love you’ to the rioters and repeated his baseless claims of electoral fraud, did ‘very little to de-escalate the situation’.
She said at the time: ‘His comments directly led to the violence and so far he has failed to condemn that violence, and that is completely wrong.’
She is the latest senior Labour figure to be challenged over past criticism of Trump. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has also declined to apologise for remarks he made. And today Chief Treasury Secretary Darren Jones squirmed on television as comments he made in 2016 were read out.
She told the BBC on Sunday: ‘If you go back and you saw the extent of the violence and effectively undermining of democracy… those pictures were pretty stark in terms of what happened.’
She later added: ‘I think these comments in light of what happened were absolutely right and fair and relevant.’
She said Mr Lammy’s comments were however ‘much more personal and undiplomatic to the president-elect of the United States’.
Mr Lammy has drawn scrutiny in recent days for past remarks, including calling Mr Trump a ‘neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath’.
In January 2021, a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol in Washington DC in an attempt to disrupt the proceedings as Joe Biden was confirmed as the president-elect.
Mr Trump had addressed thousands of supporters at a rally near the White House before the chaos ensued, promising to ‘never concede’ that he had lost the 2020 presidential election.
