Former US President Donald Trump’s newly named running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, provoked an uproar in Britain by describing the country under the Labour Party as an “Islamist country” with nuclear weapons, The Independent reported.
Speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday night, Vance recounted a conversation with a friend.
“I was talking about, you know: what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon?” he said. “Maybe it is Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we finally decided that it’s actually the UK – since Labour just took over.”
Vance’s comments were met with a chorus of laughter from the crowd, but politicians in the UK were less than amused.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner told ITV’s Good Morning Britain, “I think he said quite a lot of fruity things in the past as well. Look, I don’t recognize that characterization. I’m very proud of the election success that Labour had recently. We won votes across all different communities, across the whole of the country. And we’re interested in governing on behalf of Britain and also working with our international allies.”
“So I look forward to that meeting, if that is the result and it’s up to the American people to decide,” said Rayner.
She added, “I think political leaders across the world all have different opinions but we govern in the interests of our countries. And the US is a key ally of ours, and if the American people decide who their president and vice-president is, we will work with them, of course we will.”
“And I’m sure they’ll have opinions on what we do and suggest, and we’ll work together constructively and I look forward to those meetings and being able to do that. That’s grown-up politics. That’s what we do.”
Treasury minister James Murray said, “I genuinely heard that comment, and I don’t know what he was driving at in that comment, 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,” he added.