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In London, May’s spokesman James Slack told reporters: “where Islamist extremism does exist, it should be tackled head on. We’re working hard to do that, both at home and internationally, including with our US partners.” Slack repeated that Trump had been “wrong” to promote the videos.

Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

Trump’s support of Britain First and his direct criticism of May via Twitter have enraged U.K lawmakers. In Parliament in London Thursday lawmakers united to condemn him, calling on Home Secretary Amber Rudd to cancel the proposed state visit and urging the U.S. president to delete his Twitter account. Rudd was speaking as May traveled in the Middle East.

Labour’s Stephen Doughty on Trump: “by sharing it he is either a racist, incompetent or unthinking or all three.” Conservative lawmaker Tim Loughton said Twitter should take down the account of “the first citizen of the United States.”

Luciana Berger, a Labour lawmaker who has suffered anti-semitic abuse on Twitter, said “Donald Trump is now actively sowing seeds of hatred in our country” and her colleague Paul Flynn said “if he comes to this country, Trump should be treated like anyone else who breaks the law and “charged with inciting racial hatred.”

Rudd said that while “many shared” the view that Trump should delete his Twitter account, she was careful to distinguish between the holder of the office and Britain’s relationship with its historical ally, the U.S.

She repeated the government’s insistence that the invitation to Trump had been extended and accepted: “We must remember that the United States itself has such an important relationship with this country in terms of keeping us safe as well.”

She is also called on social media companies such as Twitter to do more to tackle extremism and hate-speech online.



Kitty Donaldson and Thomas Penny for Bloomberg with files from Tim Ross and Alex Morales.



Associated Press Writer Patrick Mairs contributed to this story.