PM: Trump policy on Muslims is still stupid

DAVID Cameron has reiterated his criticism of Donald Trump as the maverick billionaire warned the row could damage Britain’s special relationship with the United States.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said yesterday: ‘Mr Cameron continues to believe that preventing Muslims from entering the US is divisive, stupid and wrong.’

The spokesman said Mr Cameron would ‘work with whoever is president of the United States’.

But he added: ‘The Prime Minister has made his views on Donald Trump’s comments very clear. He disagrees with them, and I haven’t got anything further to add.’

Mr Cameron first criticised Mr Trump in December, when the tycoon called for ‘a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States’ to help counter terrorism.

But in his first public response to Mr Cameron’s attack, the Republican presidential candidate said: ‘It looks like we’re not going to have a very good relationship. I hope to have a good relationship with him but it sounds like he’s not willing to address the problem either.

‘When I made that statement six months ago there was a clamour, but only by politicians.

‘Millions of people were calling in, saying Donald Trump is right – people that live in Great Britain, people that live all over the world, were saying Donald Trump is right. We have a terrible problem with Islamic terrorism, the world is blowing up, and it is not people in Sweden doing the damage.’

Asked about Mr Cameron’s criticism during the interview for Good Morning Britain on ITV yesterday, he denied being divisive, describing himself as ‘a unifier’. And Mr Trump saved his fiercest criticism for London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a practising Muslim, who last week called the billionaire ‘ignorant’ for suggesting an ‘exception’ could be made to allow him to travel to the US. The American said: ‘He doesn’t know me, hasn’t met me, doesn’t know what I’m all about.

‘I think they were very rude statements and, frankly, tell him I will remember those statements. They are very nasty statements.

‘When he won I wished him well. Now, I don’t care about him. Let’s see how he does, let’s see if he’s a good mayor.’

Mr Khan responded yesterday: ‘Donald Trump said I would be the exception to his rule, that I would be the one Muslim that would be allowed to go to America. The point I made about Donald Trump making me the exception was that there is nothing exceptional about me.’ ÷ Mr Trump claims to be worth £6.9billion, but he earns just £111million a year, according to the most thorough analysis of his income so far by the Wall Street Journal. He owns 170 liquid assets including real estate, golf courses and licensing deals. However, he refuses to release his tax returns which would give full details of his income and tax rate, despite every presidential candidate making their returns public since 1976.

‘Made his views very clear’