Keir Starmer stands by overseas secretary who known as Donald Trump a ‘neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath’ | EUROtoday

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Sir Keir Starmer has defended his overseas secretary David Lammy, who prior to now known as Donald Trump a “neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath”.

Mr Lammy will stay in his submit till the subsequent election, Downing Street mentioned on Wednesday simply hours after Mr Trump’s victory was secured.

The vote of confidence got here after the prime minister was requested to apologise for his frontbencher’s assault in an article written when he was a backbench MP in 2018.

A yr earlier Mr Lammy additionally tweeted: “Yes, if Trump comes to the UK I will be out protesting on the streets. He is a racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser.”

Mr Lammy has sought to construct hyperlinks with the Trump regime since changing into overseas secretary, however the election consequence has shone a brand new highlight on his feedback, prompting questions on his capability to work with the subsequent US president.

In the identical article in 2018, the Tottenham MP wrote about Mr Trump’s first official go to to the UK, saying that he could be protesting in opposition to the then-government’s “capitulation to this tyrant in a toupee”.

“Trump is not only a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath,” he wrote, “he is also a profound threat to the international order that has been the foundation of Western progress for so long.”

The prime minister got here underneath stress over the feedback at Prime Minister’s Questions within the Commons from the brand new Tory chief Kemi Badenoch.

Referring to a dinner between the PM, Mr Lammy and Mr Trump in September, she requested: “Did the foreign secretary take that opportunity to apologise for making derogatory and scatological references, including, and I quote, ‘Trump is not only a woman-hating Neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath, he is also a profound threat to the international order’, and if he did not apologise, will the prime minister do so now on his behalf?”

Sir Keir dodged the query, saying that the assembly had been “very constructive”.

Earlier this yr Mr Lammy defended calling Mr Trump a neo-Nazi sociopath, saying all politicians had one thing to say about him “back in the day”.

He additionally mentioned he had met Mr Trump’s vice-president JD Vance and that the 2 males had “common ground”.

“We’re both from poor backgrounds, both suffered from addiction issues in our family which we’ve written about… both of us [are] Christians. And now I’ve met him on a few occasions, and we have been able to find common ground and get on,” he mentioned.

Sir Keir opened PMQs by congratulating the president-elect on his victory.

He added: “As the closest of allies, the UK and US will continue to work together to protect our shared values of freedom and democracy.

“And having had dinner with president-elect Trump just a few weeks ago, I look forward to working with him in the years to come.”