Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has claimed U.S. President Donald Trump showed “support” for Britain First by retweeting a series of videos Wednesday, and renewed his call for the leader of the free world to be banned from the United Kingdom.
A member of the British Parliament also called for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the president and put him on a security watch list, while the leader of the Church of England demanded an apology and implied the retweets were racist.
“President Trump has used Twitter to promote a vile, extremist group that exists solely to sow division and hatred in our country,” claimed Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in a statement.
“It’s increasingly clear that any official visit from President Trump to Britain would not be welcomed,” he added, explaining that he has “previously called on Theresa May to cancel her ill-judged offer of a state visit”.
The comments came hours after British Home Secretary Amber Rudd told the House that an invitation for a state visit from the president to the United Kingdom had been made and accepted, but that no specific plans or dates had been confirmed.
The mayor has previously compared Mr. Trump to Islamic State and flew to the U.S. to campaign against his election, implying his presidency would aid Islamic terrorists and their narrative.
Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe. It risks alienating mainstream Muslims. London has proved him wrong
— Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon) May 10, 2016
In his new statement, Mr Khan said the president had demonstrated “support” for the fringe, racist group Britain First – although it is not clear Mr. Trump was aware who they were when he retweeted a retweet from one of their leaders.
Mr. Khan wrote: “Many Brits who love America and Americans will see this as a betrayal of the special relationship between our two countries.
“It beggars belief that the President of our closest ally doesn’t see that his support of this extremist group actively undermines the values of tolerance and diversity that make Britain great.”
He also insisted the prime minister and government use any influence they “claim to have with the President” to “ask him to delete these tweets and apologise to the British people”.
The office of the prime minister has already described the retweets as “wrong”, prompting the president to respond, telling Theresa May to focus on tackling terror instead of policing speech.
I join the urgent call for President @realDonaldTrump to remove his Britain First retweets and make clear his opposition to racism and hatred. https://t.co/JosYO7vwEG pic.twitter.com/v66KQVtWQq
— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) November 29, 2017
Mr. Khan is not the only British public figure to attack and insult the president since he shared the videos on Wednesday.
Labour MP David Lammy claimed that the “sharing of those videos is a crime in the UK called inciting hatred”, adding: “We should be asking the FBI to investigate, putting [President Trump] on a watch list and barring him from entry to our country.”
Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said the retweets were “deeply disturbing” and called on him to delete the messages and apologise.
The far-left Soros-funded group Hope Not Hate was invited to speak on the BBC four times Thursday morning on the matter and has set up a petition urging the British ambassador to the U.S. to intervene.
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