LONDON — Labour ministers have rejected a suggestion by Donald Trump’s new running mate that the U.K. is an “Islamist country.”

J.D. Vance, named Monday as the Republican vice presidential nominee, described Britain under the new Labour government as the world’s first “truly Islamist country” to have a nuclear weapon.

It was a claim which came as a blow to Labour ministers, in office for less than a fortnight, who have been keen to curry favor both with Trump and Vance.

Labour’s Deputy PM Angela Rayner told ITV: “Look, I don’t recognize that characterization, I’m very proud of the election success that Labour had recently. I think he said quite a lot of fruity things in the past as well.”

Speaking days before being adopted by Trump as his vice-presidential pick, Vance, a junior senator from Ohio, told the National Conservatism Conference: “I was talking with a friend recently and we were talking about [how] one of the big dangers in the world, of course, is nuclear proliferation, though the Biden administration doesn’t care about it.

  • @HomerianSymphony
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    472 months ago

    “And I was talking about what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon, and we were like, maybe it’s Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we sort of finally decided maybe it’s actually the UK, since Labour just took over,” Vance added.

    He thinks Pakistan might not count as a “truly Islamist” country, but the UK does (but only since last week).

  • jprice
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    fedilink
    372 months ago

    How does somebody go from calling Trump America’s Hitler to his vice president pick?

    • teft
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      312 months ago

      Bootlicking. Lots and lots of bootlicking.

    • @[email protected]
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      172 months ago

      Vance has mever been anything more than a fucking weasel who appeals to suburbanites who absolutely detest poor people.

    • @AdamEatsAss
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      142 months ago

      …He doesn’t think of Hitler as an bad guy.

    • @big_slap
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      62 months ago

      come on, you know why lol

    • @samus12345
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      62 months ago

      You guys did your part and removed control of your government from right-wingers, now we need to do the same.

      • @EnderMB
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        42 months ago

        Starmer’s Labour probably won’t be much better. I’d say that we got rid of populists and replaced them with centrists. Labour definitely aren’t a leftist party, although to American standards they probably are.

        • @samus12345
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          22 months ago

          Anyone left of Hitler is leftist by American standards.

  • @nmhforlife
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    2 months ago

    …and so what if they were.

    • @samus12345
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      72 months ago

      I’m not a fan of any country identifying as a theocracy.

      • @nmhforlife
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        42 months ago

        Neither am I. My point, if I had one, was more about the fact he was being Xenophobic. Not like he isn’t part of the group trying to establish a Christian state here.

        • @samus12345
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          12 months ago

          Yeah, this is an (unfounded) accusation that they’re establishing a theocracy for the wrong religion.

  • @[email protected]
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    32 months ago

    American here. I’m not quite getting the “said quite a lot of fruity things in the past.” From context.

    Anyone care to explain it?

  • @peg
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    02 months ago

    Never heard of this guy but he seems pretty American.