David Lammy breaks silence on previous criticism calling Trump ‘neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath’ for first time | EUROtoday

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David Lammy has moved to dampen down hypothesis of a rift with Donald Trump after his feedback branding the president-elect “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser” resurfaced.

In an article in 2018 the now international secretary wrote about Mr Trump’s first official go to to the UK and described him as a “tyrant” and “a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”.

However, in his first interview because the president-elect’s victory he instructed the BBC Newcast podcast that Mr Trump’s marketing campaign was “very well run”, including: “I felt in my bones that there could be a Trump presidency.”

Mr Lammy was additional challenged within the interview about feedback he made about Mr Trump earlier than changing into international secretary.

In the identical article in 2018, the Tottenham MP mentioned that he can be protesting in opposition to the then-government’s “capitulation to this tyrant in a toupee”.

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.”

Asked if he had modified his views on BBC Newscast on Thursday, Mr Lammy mentioned his feedback have been “old news” and lots of politicians had mentioned some “pretty ripe things” about Trump prior to now.

He mentioned: “I think that what you say as a backbencher and what you do wearing the real duty of public office are two different things.

“And I am foreign secretary. There are things I know now that I didn’t know back then.”

Pressed whether or not Mr Trump had introduced up the insults when the pair met in New York, Mr Lammy mentioned: “Not even vaguely.

“I know this is a talking point today, but in a world where there’s war in Europe, where there’s a tremendous loss of life in the Middle East, where the US and the UK genuinely have a special relationship, where we got someone who’s about to become again, the US president, who has experience of doing the job last time round, we will forge common interests.

“We will agree and align on much and where we disagree, we’ll have those conversations as well, most often in private.”

Mr Lammy has sought to construct hyperlinks with Mr Trump’s regime since changing into international secretary, however the election outcome has shone a brand new highlight on his feedback, prompting questions on his capacity to work with the following US president.

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.