Republican frontrunner welcomes controversial British commentator’s support amid record-breaking campaign to bar him from the UK

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Donald Trump has continued to hit back against UK critics of his stand against Islam, saying Britain had “a massive Muslim problem”.

After prompting outrage with his claims about race relations in the UK, Trump tweeted on Thursday night that more Muslims joined Islamic State than signed up for the British army.

“In Britain, more Muslims join ISIS than join the British army,” he said in the tweet, drawing on an article about Isis in the National Review which in turn quoted from a Times news report from August 2014.

The leading Republican presidential contender, who prompted outrage around the world on Monday by calling for Muslims to be barred from entering the United States following the San Bernardino shooting, had earlier praised controversial British commentator Katie Hopkins after she supported his position in an interview on Fox News.

“The politicians of the UK should watch Katie Hopkins … many people in the UK agree with me,” Trump tweeted just after 6am ET.

In another tweet he said: “The United Kingdom is trying hard to disguise their massive Muslim problem. Everybody is wise to what is happening, very sad! Be honest.”

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On Wednesday, Trump attracted a political backlash in Britain when he claimed there were parts of London so radicalised that police officers feared for their lives. The comments were rejected by Downing Street, which said they were “totally inaccurate”, and the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who said they were “utter nonsense”.

The Scottish government has dropped Trump from his role as a business ambassador, and Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen has stripped him of his honorary degree.

On Thursday, Hopkins used an appearance on Fox to highlight a petition calling for Trump be banned from Britain following his inflammatory speech in South Carolina. Hopkins, who recently left the Sun newspaper for MailOnline, said: “A quarter of the population here in the UK are right behind Donald Trump.”

The petition become the most popular ever campaign on the UK government’s website on Thursday, beating the previous record of 446,482.

Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, a eurosceptic, anti-immigration party, has described Trump’s call to ban Muslims from the US as a “political mistake too far”. But Hopkins said of Ukip in her Fox interview: “60% of their membership are right behind Donald Trump as well.”

Hopkins is one of Britain’s most controversial columnists. She attracted a storm of protest before the last UK general election by implying that then Labour party leader Ed Miliband was on the autistic “spectrum” after one of his speeches.



She also provoked fury when she wrote in the Sun that European gunships should be used against migrants crossing the Mediterranean and compared the people fleeing war and poverty to cockroaches.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) The United Kingdom is trying hard to disguise their massive Muslim problem. Everybody is wise to what is happening, very sad! Be honest.

In his early-morning outpouring, Trump heaped praise on Hopkins. “Thank you to respected columnist Katie Hopkins … for her powerful writing on the UK’s Muslim problems,” he tweeted.