Angela Rayner slaps back at Trump VP JD Vance on claims UK is an 'Islamist country'

Angela Rayner has rejected a description by Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick that the UK is the first “truly islamist” country with a nuclear weapon under Labour.

Ohio senator JD Vance, who has been chosen as Mr Trump’s running mate, made the comments in an address to the National Conservatism conference in Washington DC last week.

He told how he had been discussing with a friend which would be “the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon”.

He said: “We were like maybe it’s Iran, maybe Pakistan kind of counts, and then we sort of decided maybe it’s actually the UK since Labour just took over.

“But to my Tory friends, I have to say, you guys have got to get a handle on this.”

Both Labour and Tories slammed his comments today.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner told how Mr Vance had said “quite a lot of fruity things in the past” and she “looked forward” to meeting him and Mr Trump if they won the US election in November.

She added: “I don’t recognise that characterisation. I’m very proud of the election success that Labour had recently.

“We won votes across all different communities, across the whole of the country, and we’re interested in governing on behalf of Britain and also working with our international allies.”

Andrew Bowie, the shadow veterans minister, said he “absolutely” disagreed with the claim that Labour was creating an “Islamist country”.

He said: “I disagree with the Labour Party fundamentally on many issues, but I do not agree with that view, quite frankly. I think it’s actually quite offensive, frankly, to my colleagues in the Labour Party.”

Foreign Secretary David Lammy is reported to have good relations with the senator who he has met with him multiple times.

Mr Lammy previously praised Mr Vance’s memoir, Hillybilly Elegy, saying it “reduced me to tears”.

In an address in the US in May, Mr Lammy described Mr Vance as his “friend”, saying he was “right to say we in Europe have a problem that we need to fix with higher defence expenditure”.

But the selection of Mr Vance, a former US marine who previously opposed Mr Trump, could still pose a challenge for the new Labour Government if Mr Trump returns to the White House.

Mr Trump reportedly used his first meeting with his VP pick to “bust his chops” for 10 minutes and clear the bad blood between them.

Mr Vance had only vitriol for Trump in the past, calling him “America’s Hitler” and labelling himself a “never Trumper”.

But during his 2022 senate campaign, Mr Vance changed his tune by showing admiration for the former US President and his policies.

As well as his comments about the UK and Labour, Mr Vance has backed attempts by the US Republican Party to end support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

He previously criticised the decision to send Ukraine “hundreds of billions of dollars of weaponry with no obvious end in sight and no obvious conclusion or even objective that we are close to getting accomplished”.

Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, former chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said Mr Vance’s selection “only cements the need” for the Government to set out a firm timetable for spending 2.5% of GDP on defence, rising to 3%.

She said: “Old certainties can no longer be taken for granted and firm action is needed to ensure our own, and European, security.”

Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the US and Americas programme at Chatham House, said the fact that Mr Lammy and Mr Vance apparently like each other will make it “easier to get through some of the rhetoric” to potentially work together.

She also said Mr Vance has “loose lips” and that it is important to remember that a lot of his comments are intended for a domestic audience.

Mr Vance went from being an “anti-Trumper” to forging a “tight bond” with the former president, she said.

When it comes to his comments about the UK being an “Islamist country”, Dr Vinjamuri said: “My main takeaway on this is we now have yet another person on the ticket who will say really bombastic, very divisive things, who isn’t going to rein in his rhetoric.

“And that’s going to be very, very difficult for Europeans in general, and for the UK in particular because … the US and the UK need to be aligned, have been aligned on the big geopolitical and geoeconomic issues.

“And so it’s going to be back to the future, with not only Trump, but also now JD Vance saying these things that are going to rip across Britain’s domestic fabric and create a challenge for Keir Starmer, for David Lammy, who are going to have to manage this, because they’ve got to work with them if they’re elected.”