TRUMP STORM OVER FAR-RIGHT VIDEOS
May condemns him for sharing UK hate group’s propaganda – as calls grow to axe his visit to Britain
THERESA May yesterday signalled her strongest condemnation yet of Donald Trump after the US President shared hate videos posted by a British far-Right party.
The Prime Minister said Mr Trump was ‘wrong’ to have retweeted the anti-Islam messages, posted by the deputy leader of Britain First, who has a hate crime conviction.
But she stopped short of bowing to pressure to withdraw the President’s controversial invitation to visit Britain.
It is understood that Mr Trump’s state visit had finally been pencilled in to take place early in the New Year, but yesterday it appeared to have been postponed – and Downing Street refused to rule out the idea it might be delayed until 2019.
The President was accused of ‘normalising hatred’ after he retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted on social media by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, a splinter group of the British National Party.
The far-Right party has been widely condemned for its openly anti-Islam agenda and there have been calls for it to be listed as a terror organisation.
Fransen, 31, has a conviction for religiously aggravated harassment and is due to stand trial on further charges in January – raising further questions about Mr Trump’s decision to share her Twitter messages with his 43.6 million followers.
He re-tweeted video clips which purported to show a Muslim migrant attacking a Dutch boy on crutches, a Muslim destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary and an ‘Islamist mob’ pushing a teenager off a roof and beating him to death.
Within hours of the messages appearing on the President’s Twitter feed, Dutch authorities issued a statement saying the teenager accused of carrying out the attack was born and raised in the Netherlands, and was not a migrant.
The two other videos were filmed amid conflicts in Egypt and in Syria as far back as 2013.
The misrepresentation of facts in his tweets should be embarrassing for Mr Trump, who has repeatedly criticised the media for reporting ‘fake news’. Fransen, from Penge in South-East London, and Britain First have been regularly accused of peddling so-called ‘fake news’ to support their anti-Islam agenda.
The killer of Labour MP Jo Cox, Nazi-obsessed loner Thomas Mair, shouted the words ‘Britain First’ as he launched his brutal attack on the 41-year-old mother of two. There is no known link between him and the party.
Her widower Brendan Cox said yesterday: ‘Trump has legitimised the far Right in his own country, now he’s trying to do it in ours. Spreading hatred has consequences and the President should be ashamed of himself.’
Mrs May, on a visit to the Middle East, said: ‘British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far Right, which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents – decency, tolerance and respect.
‘It is wrong for the President to have done this.’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the tweets were ‘abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society’.
Downing Street said the invitation for Mr Trump to visit Britain stood, prompting widespread calls for it to be withdrawn.
The Muslim Council of Britain called on the Government to ‘distance’ itself from Mr Trump’s tweets.
A spokesman said: ‘This is the clearest endorsement yet from the US President of the far-Right and their vile anti-Muslim propaganda. We cannot give such bigotry a free pass.
‘We hope our Prime Minister and Home Secretary will distance the UK from Mr Trump and his comments, and will reiterate the Government’s abhorrence to all forms of extremism.’
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said he found Mr Trump’s re-tweets ‘deeply disturbing’ and called for him to take them down.
He said: ‘Britain First seeks to divide communities and intimidate minorities, especially our Muslim friends and neighbours. I join the urgent call of faith groups and others for President Trump not just to remove these tweets, but to make clear his opposition to racism and hatred in all forms.’
Labour MP Chuka Umunna said the President was ‘normalising hatred’, adding: ‘Donald Trump is promoting the propaganda of a
‘We can’t give bigotry a free pass’
racist far-Right group. His invite to visit the UK in 2018 should be immediately withdrawn.’
David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham in North London, added: ‘The President of the United States is promoting a fascist, racist, extremist hate group whose leaders have been arrested and convicted. He is no ally or friend of ours.’
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who clashed with Mr Trump last year over his plans for a Muslim ‘travel ban’ in the US, said: ‘Britain First is a vile, hate-fuelled organisation whose views should be condemned, not amplified.’
The White House attempted to limit the political fallout, saying Mr Trump was trying to highlight a ‘real threat’, even if the anti-Muslim videos were misleading.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said: ‘The threat is real, and that’s what the President is talking about.
‘The threat needs to be addressed, the threat has to be talked about and that’s what the President is doing in bringing that up.’ Fransen tweeted a bizarre message to Mr Trump last night, appealing for his help ahead of her forthcoming trial on charges of religiously aggravated harassment, which carries a maximum two-year jail sentence.
She said Britain had become ‘Sharia compliant’, saying: ‘I’m appealing to you for your help.
‘I’m appealing for your intervention before I’m thrown in
jail and others receive the same treatment for simply speaking out. God bless you, Donald Trump.’
Mr Trump faced criticism last month when he blamed a 13 per cent rise in crime in Britain on the ‘spread of radical Islam terror’. The figures were actually attributed to an increase in sex and knife crimes.
During his presidential campaign, he promised to ‘strongly consider’ closing mosques, and as President he has sought to ban travel from countries with a majority Muslim population.