THERESA May has insisted she is not afraid to tell the US when it gets things wrong as she publicly rebuked Donald Trump over his retweeting of extremist Far Right videos.
Downing Street, which noted how Sir Kim Darroch, the UK’s ambassador to Washington, had raised the UK Government’s concerns with the White House, is bracing itself for another Trump tweet in response.
The extraordinary flare-up between the two key allies came after the US President responded directly to the Prime Minister’s assertion that his re-postings of inflammatory anti-Muslim videos posted online by the deputy leader of the Far Right Britain First group had been wrong.
In a trademark late night tweet, he wrote: "@Theresa_May, don't focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!"
Speaking at a press conference in Jordan, during her three-day visit to the Middle East, the PM said: “The fact that we work together does not mean that we are afraid to say when we think that the United States have got it wrong and I am very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do.”
Asked whether she regarded the president as a "supporter and enabler" of such groups, Mrs May said: "We must all take seriously the threat that Far Right groups pose both in terms of the terrorist threat that is posed by those groups and the necessity of dealing with extremist material which is Far Right as well.
"I've commented in the past on issues in the United States on this matter. In the United Kingdom we take the Far Right very seriously and that's why we ensure we deal with these threats and this extremism wherever it comes and whatever its source."
However, the PM rebuffed the growing clamour to call off the President’s planned state visit, stressing how she remained committed to the "special relationship" between the UK and US.
During Urgent Question exchanges in the Commons, Labour’s Paul Flynn demanded Mrs May withdraw the President’s invitation, telling MPs: “If he's allowed to come to this country now, he should be treated as anyone else who breaks the law and charged with inciting racial hatred.”
The SNP’s Stuart McDonald insisted that the sharing of tweets by an extremist, offensive and racist organisation was not fitting for someone holding such high office and must be condemned unequivocally.
“We call for the Government to go further because is not one of the key dangers of a state visit that we have absolutely no idea what the President will say or tweet next and before he visits? What does he actually need to say or tweet before the idea of a state visit is ditched once and for all?” asked the MP for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East.
Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, replied: “An invitation for the visit has been extended and accepted but the dates and the precise arrangements have yet to be agreed.”
Paul Masterton, the Tory MP for East Renfrewshire, asked if she was “satisfied that President Trump’s behaviour…does not undermine our important security and co-operation relationship with the United States? May I also say that just because somebody stops using Twitter, it does not mean that they cease to be a twit?”
Ms Rudd said her colleague had put “his finger on it, if I may say so, in the first half of his comment when he talks about the importance of that close relationship. However strongly MPs feel about the President, we must protect the particular relationship that we have with the US, which does so much to keep British people safe”.
Earlier, London Mayor Sadiq Khan had also called on Mrs May to withdraw the state visit invitation while Sir Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat leader, branded Mr Trump an "evil racist," who should not be afforded the honour.
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