Donald Trump’s choice for vice president described the UK as an “Islamist country” with nuclear weapons during a speech at a right-wing conference last week.
JD Vance, the Ohio senator, was announced as Mr Trump’s running mate on Monday after the former president was shot in the ear during a rally in Pennsylvania at the weekend.
Recounting a conversation he was having with a friend, the 39-year-old said he had been wondering which “truly Islamist country” would be the first to gain access to nuclear weapons.
“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.”
Mr Vance’s bizarre comments came as he was speaking at the National Conservatism Conference, often referred to as NatCon, in Washington DC, and were met with a chorus of laughter from the crowd.
In the speech, Mr Vance talked about how “American leaders should look out for Americans… and for the Brits, UK leaders should look out for citizens of the UK or subjects or whatever you guys call yourselves”.
He added “by the way, I have to beat up on the UK for just one additional thing”, before saying the election of a Labour government has left Britain as the “first truly Islamist country that will gain a nuclear weapon”. “To our Tory friends, I have to say, you guys have got to get a handle on this,” he said.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the first Muslim to serve in a British cabinet, said Mr Vance’s comments represented “the everyday Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism which is casually thrown around by some of the most powerful in our societies”.
And deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said she “doesn’t recognise” the characterisation of the UK under a Labour government as “Islamist”.
Ms 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 recognise that characterisation. 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.”
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.”
And Tory veterans minister Andrew Bowie described Mr Vance’s comments as “offensive”. He told Times Radio: “I disagree with the Labour Party fundamentally on many issues, but I do not agree with that view, quite frankly.
“I think it’s actually quite offensive, frankly, to my colleagues in the Labour Party.”
Meanwhile Treasury minister James Murray has said he does not know what Mr Vance was “driving at” when he described the UK as an “Islamist country”.
The exchequer secretary to the Treasury told Sky News: “I don’t really understand those comments.”
He added: “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. I’m very clear where we are. I don’t really know how that comment fits in.”
On whether the UK has a continuing “special relationship” with the US, Mr Murray said: “I think we do, and I think we do have a special bond, irrespective of individual people or individual comments.
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said Mr Vance’s comments were “divisive and dangerous”. MCB secretary general Zara Mohammed said: “They serve as a stark reminder of how populist, Islamophobic sentiment is used to garner votes.
“Closer to home, we have seen this language mirrored by former home secretary Suella Braverman and former deputy chair of the Conservatives and current Reform MP Lee Anderson.
“Such inflammatory speech has no place in our politics and should be called out for what it is by our government.”
Among the other speakers at the National Conservatism conference was Suella Braverman, the former UK home secretary.
Last year, Ms Braverman was accused of inciting the far right when she decried the pro-Palestine demonstrations in the UK as “hate marches” and called for the protesters to be banned from action on Armistice Day. A far right mob later appeared at the fringes of the marches and, on multiple occasions, attempted to attack protesters and police officers.
A spokesperson for the Muslim Association of Britain told The Independent at the time that the then-home secretary’s comments had created “quite a lot of fear among some Muslim communities” who viewed it as a direct attack on their solidarity with Palestinians, many of whom are also Muslim.
“The home secretary needs to take a good look at herself and focus on governing the streets instead of inflaming tensions using Islamophobic tactics to embolden the far right,” the spokesperson said.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who was in the US this week for the Milwaukee Republican convention, has also railed against the Muslim community in Britain, suggesting ahead of the general election that they do not share UK values.