Minister Pat McFadden Refuses 3 Times To Deny Trump Has 'KKK Or Nazi Sympathies'
Cabinet office minister Pat McFadden refused three times to deny that Donald Trump has KKK or Nazi sympathies this morning.
The Republican’s re-election to the White House has triggered old, anti-Trump remarks from current Labour ministers to resurface.
Foreign secretary David Lammy’s previous comments have come under particular scrutiny – he once called Trump a “neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath” and “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser”.
So on LBC this morning, presenter Nick Ferrari asked McFadden: “Do you think Donald Trump has KKK sympathies or Nazi sympathies?”
The minister replied: “I think the relationship between Britain and America is really important and I’m confident –”
Ferrari interrupted and said: “That wasn’t the question though was it, Pat?”
“No I know,” the minister admitted. “And I don’t want to get into –”
But the presenter cut in again : “So you think he might [have those sympathies]?”
McFadden replied: “Look, what I think is important is the friendship between these two countries.”
Ferrari said: “I agree with you, but you can’t say he doesn’t [have those sympathies].”
McFadden dodged the question once more, and said: “Well I think there’s another point that we shouldn’t miss here.
“Because of the timings of these two elections, both being within a few months of each other, we know now the character of both governments on both sides of the Atlantic.”
But Ferrari did not give up, and asked again: “We will move on but for the third time I will ask you: do you think he has Nazi or KKK sympathies, Pat McFadden? Third time of asking.”
The minister simply replied: “I congratulate him on his win and we look forward to working with him.”
McFadden also excused Labour’s past anti-Trump comments by pointing out how the president-elect’s running mate, JD Vance, and his vocal supporter Elon Musk have both slammed the Republican in the past.
PM Keir Starmer was one of the first to publicly congratulate Trump on his “historic” victory yesterday.
But, he still stood by Lammy in the Commons when Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the prime minister should apologise for the foreign secretary’s past remarks.
Starmer just dodged the question by saying his and Lammy’s meeting with Trump in September was “very constructive”.