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Agence France-Presse

The two candidates vying to become Britain’s next prime minister both condemned on Monday US President Donald Trump’s xenophobic tweets about progressive Democrat congresswomen as “totally offensive” and “totally unacceptable”.
But front runner Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt refused to call the tweets racist when pressed to do so during their last debate before next week’s announcement of who will succeed Prime Minister Theresa May.
May’s spokesman had earlier said that the outgoing leader’s view was that Trump’s comments were “completely unacceptable”.
On Monday Trump doubled down on a series of his tweets from the day before urging the four congresswomen of colour to “go back” to the countries they came from.




“If you’re not happy here, you can leave,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Johnson said the original tweets expressed sentiments “that went out decades and decades ago”.
“I think the relations between the UK and US are incredibly important,” Johnson said.
“But if you are the leader of a great multiracial, multicultural society, you simply cannot use that kind of language about sending people back where they came ago,” Johnson said. “It’s totally unacceptable, and I agree with the prime minister.”
This is the president of a country which happens to be our closest ally and so it is not gonna help the situation to use that kind of language about the president of the United States
Jeremy Hunt, British foreign secretary
Pressed by the moderator to call Trump’s tweets racist, Johnson said: “I’ve said what I said.”
Hunt recalled that he had three half-ethnically Chinese children who are British citizens.
“If anyone said to them, go back to China, I would be utterly appalled,” Hunt said. “It is totally un-British to say that.”
Pressed to call the comments racist, Hunt signalled that he would have were he not Britain’s chief diplomat.
“Look, I am foreign secretary, this is the president of a country which happens to be our closest ally and so it is not gonna help the situation to use that kind of language about the president of the United States,” Hunt said.
Trump slammed as racist after ‘go back home’ tweets
“I can understand how many people of this country would want me to use those words, and would feel that sentiment,” he added. “But I hope I have made absolutely clear how totally offensive it is to me that people are still saying that kind of thing.”
Trump has developed good relations with Johnson and backs both his leadership bid and determination to take Britain out of the European Union.
Johnson did, however, set up a clash with the Trump administration over Iran amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. At the debate on Monday, he said the Tehran government is a “disruptive, dangerous, difficult” regime, but military action is not “a sensible option for us in the West”.
“Diplomacy must be the best way forward,” Johnson said. “If you ask me if I think, were I prime minister now, would I be supporting military action against Iran, the answer is ‘No.”’

Both the US government and Iran have said they are not seeking a war. Trump has said military action remains an option on the table but cancelled a planned air strike in retaliation for Iran shooting down an American drone last month, opting instead for increased sanctions.
But Johnson’s comments, ruling out joining any US-led military action, risk undermining Trump’s attempts to pressure Iran to rein in its nuclear ambitions and end its destabilising activities in the region.
Some 160,000 paying members of the ruling Conservative Party are currently picking the country’s new leader.
The winner of the mail-in ballot will be announced on July 23. The new prime minister formally assumes office the following day.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg


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Britain

British PM hopefuls Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt slam Donald Trump’s ‘go back’ tweets, but refuse to call them racist

Boris Johnson speaks during a Tory leadership hustings in Colchester on Saturday. Photo: dpa

15 July 2019, England, London: Conservative party leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt takes part in a head-to-head debate hosted by The Sun, with Boris Johnson (Not Pictured) at Talk Radio. Photo: Louis Wood/The Sun/PA Wire/dpa

Trump presses attack on Democrat congresswomen amid outcry over racist tweets

US President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP

FILE - In this July 19, 2017, file photo, White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short talks to the media during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington. Short says President Donald Trump isn't campaigning for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore due to "discomfort" with allegations of sexual misconduct involving the former judge. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Representative Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat from Massachusetts, from right, Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, and Representative Veronica Escobar, a Democrat from Texas, react during a House Oversight Committee hearing on family separation and detention centers, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, July 12, 2019. Representatives Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib gave impassioned speeches on Friday, shedding tears while describing the conditions they witnessed along the border in what they stated was a "policy of dehumanization." Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

‘Hung out to dry’: Boris Johnson under pressure over British ambassador Kim Darroch’s downfall

Boris Johnson has tried to play down his role in the ambassador’s resignation. Photo: Bloomberg

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on July 10, 2019 shows British Ambassador Kim Darroch (L) at The British Embassy on January 18, 2017 in Washington, DC. And US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 29, 2019. Britain's ambassador to Washington resigned on July 10, 2019 after being targeted by US President Donald Trump over the leak of highly critical diplomatic cables that put the allies' relationship on edge. - Outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May had offered her support to Kim Darroch after it was revealed he described the Trump administration as "inept". (Photos by Paul Morigi and Brendan Smialowski / various sources / AFP)

Conservative leadership contender Boris Johnson poses with a pint of during his visit to their JD Wetherspoon's Metropolitan Bar in London, on July 10, 2019. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / POOL / AFP)

Boris Johnson: ‘My view is it’s wrong to drag civil servants into the political arena’. Photo: Bloomberg

‘Clumsy and inept’: top UK envoy in Washington Kim Darroch slams Donald Trump’s ‘chaotic’ administration, warns it may ‘crash and burn’, media reports

Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Photo: Bloomberg

U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters after signing the Taxpayer First Act as Vice President Mike Pence, left, and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar look on in the Oval Office of the White House on July 1, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/TNS)

Kim Darroch at a function in the UK embassy in Washington. Photo: Kim Darroch/Twitter

Kim Darroch. Photo: Kim Darroch/Twitter/UK government

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World

Europe

United States & Canada

At final Tory leadership debate, candidates say US president’s comments telling Democrat congresswomen to ‘go back’ were ‘totally offensive’
Johnson also warned Trump that he would not support a war with Iran


At final Tory leadership debate, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt say US president’s comments about Democrat congresswomen were ‘totally offensive’.


Donald Trump

United States

Theresa May

Diplomacy