MUSLIM MP and Cabinet minister Sajid Javid has spoken out against President Donald Trump after he promoted the far-right Britain First group on social media.
The Bromsgrove Conservative MP tweeted: “So POTUS has endorsed the views of a vile, hate-filled racist organisation that hates me and people like me. He is wrong and I refuse to let it go and say nothing.”
His condemnation echoed a statement by Number 10 Downing Street also saying President Trump had been ‘wrong’ to retweet three posts by the group.
Mr Javid, the Local Government Secretary, was immediately praised by Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson who replied: “Absolutely Saj.”
Fellow Conservative and Stratford-on-Avon MP Nadhim Zahawi has written an open letter to Trump expressing his “strong discontent” at the retweets.
Mr Zahawi said: “You are soon due to visit the United Kingdom. When you are here, I believe you would find enlightening the experience of visiting our beautiful cities like Coventry, Birmingham, Manchester and London.”
But Mr Trump has not taken criticism from the British Government well and he issued a further tweet telling Prime Minister 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!”
Earlier Downing Street made clear the Government’s dismay at the way he had publicised the views of a such far-right group.
“Britain First seeks to divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions,” the Prime Minister’s spokesman said.
“They cause anxiety to law-abiding people.
“British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far-right which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents, decency, tolerance and respect.
“It is wrong for the president to have done this.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Brendan Cox, widow of MP Jo Cox who whose killer called ‘Britain first’ as he shot her, have joined the widespread condemnation of the President.
The President caused outrage after retweeting three posts by Britain First’s deputy leader Jayda Fransen to his 43.6 million followers, including footage from the Netherlands purporting to show a Muslim migrant attacking a disabled boy.
Fransen, 31, was convicted last November of religiously aggravated harassment for hurling abuse at a Muslim woman in a hijab.
The credibility of the retweeted footage has also been undermined by the Dutch authorities who confirmed the attacker was not an immigrant, but born and bred in the Netherlands.
