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The new foreign secretary David Lammy clashed with BBC breakfast host Naga Munchetty as he tried to avoid directly answering questions about his past comments on former president Donald Trump.
Ms Munchetty pointed out that Mr Lammy had described Trump as “a neo Nazi sympathising sociopath” and a “tyrant in a toupet” among other brutal attacks on X (formerly known as Twitter) when he was president.
But Mr Lammy, who started reaching out to Republicans and rightwing think tanks in America once he became shadow foreign secretary before Labour won the election, insisted that he had not been alone in making comments about the current Republican nominee.
He said: “You are going to struggle to find any politician who has not had things to say about Donald Trump in his first term particularly on Twitter.
“You’d have struggled with our last foreign secretary David Cameron who described him as a xenophobe and a misogynist.”
As Ms Munchetty tried to interupt, he added: “You will struggle with the vice presidential candidate [J. D. Vance] he has just selected who has also had things to say.”
Vance had called Trump “America’s Hitler” before having a profound change of heart and later stating he had been wrong.
Lammy went on: “The truth is that with our special relationship it is special. We will work with whom ever the American people choose to be in the White House over generations now whatever the colour of the political party.”
But Ms Mungetty hit back: “You haven’t actually answered the question.”
Lammy responded: “I have answered the question, you just didn’t like the answer!”
The BBC presenter pointed out that Vance had said he was wrong and she pressed Mr Lammy to say if he thought he had been wrong in his comments too.
But the foreign secrettary refused to say he had.
He said: “Donald Trump has the thickest of skins. There is the rhetoric but look at the action. He was the first to give Jevelins to Ukraine after 2015. He talked about withdrawing from Nato he actually increased troops to Nato.
“If the American people choose Donald Trump we will work with him as closely where we can and we will seek to influence him where we disagree.
“As I have said, Donald Trump is the biggest of political characters we have on the planet at this point. Lots of people have had things to say.
“There is a lot of common cause with whoever Americans select to be in the White House.”
Mr Lammy also addressed comments made by Vance in jest in a recent speech that the UK is “an Islamist country”.
but the foreign secretary defended the vice presidential nominee who he said he shares a lot in common with.
He told the BBC: “On J. D. Vance, I have met him, we have similar working class backgrounds with addiction issues in our families. We have written books on that, we have talked about that and we are both Christians. So I think we can find common ground with J. D. Vance.”
The foreign secretary also avoided getting involved with the debate over US president Joe Biden’s health amid increasing pressure for him not to be the Democrat nominee in the election in November.
“I was with [Biden] last week. He led Nato ensuring we have a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine. I found him to be robust on the issues.
“They are a great democracy. There will be a lot of debate and heat between now and November. That is a matter for the American people.”
