UK leaders label Trump comments “totally unacceptable”

LEADERSHIP contenders Johnson and Hunt

 
1,621Views 2Comments Posted 16/07/2019

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt one of whom will become Britain’s new Prime Minister  joined the incumbent  Theresa May in condemning  US President Donald Trump for calling on several Democratic congresswomen of color to “go home” reports The Week

The two candidates vying to be prime minister were asked about the US president’s remarks in a Sun and TalkRadio leadership debate

Johnson, the favorite for the role, said: “Relations between the UK and US are incredibly important. But if you are the leader of a great multiracial, multicultural country you simply cannot use that kind of language about sending people back to where they came from. It went out decades and decades ago and thank heavens for that. It’s totally unacceptable.”

Hunt agreed saying: “I have three half-Chinese children and if anyone ever said to them, ‘Go back to China’ I would be utterly appalled. It is totally un-British to do that. So I hope that would never happen in this country.”

Earlier in the day, the outgoing prime minister’s official spokesman had said that May’s view “is that the language which was used to refer to the women was completely unacceptable.” 

The Guardian points out that in their statements, all three had “stopped short of branding [Trump] racist.”

The Express asks whether the condemnation from all three means the “special relationship is over”.

According to The Independent, May’s statement was her “strongest criticism of the Republican to date,” following milder censures for his comments in the wake of the Charlottesville protests, and for retweeting far-right group British First.