Donald Trump’s pick to be his running mate in the American presidential election recently described Britain as an “Islamist country”, it has emerged.
JD Vance made the remarks at last week’s National Conservatism conference in Washington, where former home secretary Suella Braverman also spoke.
His comments set him on a collision course with the Labour government should Trump be re-elected to the White House in November.
Vance said: “I have to beat up on the UK, just one additional thing.
“I was talking with a friend recently and we were talking about one of the big dangers in the world is nuclear proliferation, though of course the Biden administration doesn’t care about it.
“I was talking about what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon. We were like ‘maybe it’s Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts’.
“And we sort of finally decided maybe it’s the UK, since Labour just took over. But to our Tory friends I’ve got to say, you guys have got to get a handle on this.”
Trump chose Vance as his pick to be his vice-president at the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
That is despite the fact that in 2016, he said Trump had the potential to be “America’s Hitler”.