London Mayor urges May to cancel Trump’s state visit, following anti-Muslim retweets

World

Published: 2017-11-30 14:07

Last Updated: 2024-04-15 21:54


Theresa May invited Trump earlier to visit the UK. (BBC)
Theresa May invited Trump earlier to visit the UK. (BBC)

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, urged UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May to cancel US President Donald Trump’s state visit to Britain, after he retweeted anti-Muslim videos on Wednesday.

Khan said Trump’s retweets are promoting “a vile, extremist group”, and an official visit by him to Britain “would not be welcomed.”

This comes following Trump’s retweets of three inflammatory anti-Muslim videos from a British far-right group.

The three videos were posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the British first movement, a nationalist and anti-Islamist political party in the UK.

Meanwhile, Trump’s retweets were widely condemned in Britain, with the PM’s official spokesman said Trump was wrong in his decision to retweet the inflammatory vidoes.

The only Muslim cabinet minister in UK, Sajid Javid also condemned Trump’s retweets saying: “He [Trump] is wrong and I refuse to let it go and say nothing”.

Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, described Trump’s decision to share the tweets as “deeply disturbing” and urged him to make a statement “to make clear his opposition to racism and hatred in all forms”.

On the other hand, Trump responded to UK May’s criticism of his retweets urging her: “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!”