Ministers face demands to cancel Donald Trump’s State Visit today after the US president retweeted anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right UK group.
MPs insisted Mr Trump was ‘not welcome here’ in the wake of the Twitter posts, while the widow of murdered politician Jo Cox accused him of ‘spreading hatred’.
The furious backlash came after Mr Trump retweeted content posted by Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen, who was convicted last year after hurling abuse at a woman wearing a hijab.
Mrs Cox was stabbed and shot outside her constituency office last year by a man who shouted ‘Britain First’.
President Trump retweeted three videos posted by a far-right British leader, known for her rabid Islamophobia
The first video President Trump posted depicted ‘Muslim migrant’ according to Jayda Fransen, beating up a ‘Dutch boy on crutches’
Labour MP Mary Creagh said Mr Trump was ‘not welcome here’, while Brendan Cox, whose politician wife Jo was killed during the EU referendum campaign last year, accused him of ‘spreading hatred’
The first video purportedly shows a ‘Muslim migrant’ beating up a Dutch boy on crutches.
Mr Trump also retweeted a video of a Muslim man ‘destroy[ing] a statue of Virgin Mary’, and another where Fransen wrote, ‘Islamist mob pushed teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!’
The provenance of the footage is unknown.
Brendan Cox, whose wife Jo was killed during the EU referendum campaign last year, said: ‘Trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now he’s trying to do it in ours.
‘Spreading hatred has consequences & the President should be ashamed of himself.’
Labour MP Mary Creagh posted: ‘Jo Cox’s killer shouted ‘Britain First’. (Trump) retweeting this hate criminal demeans his office. He is not welcome here.’
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who was embroiled in a spat with Mr Trump last year over his call for a travel ban on mainly-Muslim countries, said: Britain first is a vile, hate-fuelled organisation whose views should be condemned, not amplified.’
Labour MP Chuka Umunna told Sky News: ‘I don’t think the president of the United States, a president who has not only promoted bigotry, misogyny and racism in his own country, I don’t think he is welcome here.
‘I think the invite that has been made to him to come to our country in early 2018 should be withdrawn.
‘What we see here is the president retweeting and promoting the propaganda of a far right racist bigoted group members of which have been arrested and convicted for promoting hatred in this country.
‘I am absolutely astounded that a man – any person – in his position holding the office that he does should be promoting the propaganda of a far right British group.’
The third video President Trump retweeted shows an ‘Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!’
The second video shows a ‘Muslim man’ speaking to the camera and then bashing a statue of Virgin Mary on the ground, shattering her
The videos were posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, a far-right group that stands against the Islamisation of the United Kingdom
Labour MP and Home Affairs Committee chair Yvette Cooper said the government ‘must condemn’ the retweets by Mr Trump
Last year, Fransen was found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment after accosting a Muslim woman.
The charge stemmed from a January 2016 incident in which Fransen, wearing a political uniform and during a so-called ‘Christian patrol,’ accosted a Muslim woman named Sumayyah Sharpe in Luton, England.
Fransen admitted that she told Sharpe, who was wearing hijab, that Muslim men force women to cover up to avoid rape ‘because they cannot control their sexual urges.’
‘That’s why they are coming into my country raping women across the continent,’ Fransen told Sharpe, according to the Independent.
Sharpe was in front of her four children at the time.
Fransen, and Britain First leader Paul Golding, 35, also of Penge, are due to appear at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday for a pre-trial review over allegations of religiously aggravated abuse in Canterbury and Ramsgate, Kent.
A trial is scheduled for January 29, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
She will also appear in court in Northern Ireland in December charged with using threatening and abusive language in connection with a speech she made at an anti-terrorism demonstration in Belfast on August 6.
A tweet from Fransen’s account, which is verified by Twitter, appeared to celebrate the retweets by Mr Trump.
“THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP, HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN’S TWITTER VIDEOS! DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA!” it said.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd did not immediately respond in the House of Commons when Labour MPs Stephen Doughty and Yvette Cooper raised Mr Trump’s retweets as a point of order.
Mr Doughty said the videos were “highly inflammatory” and Ms Cooper said the president had given Fransen a “huge platform” as one MP shouted “Disgraceful” and others said “Go on, stand up” at Ms Rudd.