Labour rejects JD Vance's jibe of UK as 'first Islamist country' with nuclear weapons
Senior Labour officials have rejected comments made by Donald Trump's vice-presidential pick, in which he described the UK as becoming the first "truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon” under the party.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said Ohio Senator JD Vance had said a lot "fruity" things in the past and that she did not recognise his "characterisations".
The idea that Labour is in cahoots with so-called Islamists is a widespread trope in right-wing circles.
"What is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon?" Vance posited at a conservative conference last week, recalling a conversation with a friend.
"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.”
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Vance is best known among US voters for his rustbelt, conservative politics. A former marine, his political career started with a biographical book addressing the economic and social issues in the country's forgotten hinterlands.
In his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, Vance sought to explain why Trump resonated among white working-class families like his own.
A so-called "America Firster", Vance is said to prioritise domestic issues over those of other countries. He is nevertheless a strong supporter of aid to Israel and is an advocate of helping the state confront Iran.
Trump, who announced Vance just days after an attempted assassination left him lightly wounded, is currently the favourite to win the US presidential election as Republican candidate in November and return to the White House.
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