SHADOW foreign secretary Priti Patel has defended saying president-elect Donald Trump directly provoked violence seen in the US Capitol in January 2021.
In a heated interview on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Patel said she felt the comments were “right, fair and relevant” despite having criticised her Government counterpart David Lammy for previously calling Trump a “neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”.
In chaotic scenes on January 6, Trump’s supporters breached the Senate chamber in Washington DC as politicians were convening to formally certify Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.
READ MORE: Calls for Keir Starmer to work closer with Europe
Patel said at the time that Trump’s statement, in which he said “we love you” to the rioters and repeated his unproven claims of electoral fraud, did “very little to de-escalate the situation” and argued his comments “directly led to the violence”.
She was heavily grilled about the comments on the BBC programme and seemed initially reluctant to stand by them.
Host Kuenssberg said: “You’ve said several times you think this [Labour] Government has to work really hard to make peace with Donald Trump in order to move forward.
“After the Capitol riots, you yourself said that Donald Trump’s comments directly led to violence and he did very little to de-escalate the situation. Do you want to apologise to him as you’ve asked the Labour Party to do?”
Patel replied: “Well that was a major situation, I was home secretary at the time and we were obviously working with our US counterparts on security issues so, no one wants to see violence after elections.”
Pushed again on whether she stood by her comments, she said: “Time's have moved on because that situation, if you go back and saw the extent of the violence, and effectively undermining of democracy, you saw what happened, those pictures were pretty stark.”
Eventually, after the fourth time of asking, Patel stood by her remarks but insisted Lammy’s comments were “much more personal”.
She said: “We were absolutely worried at the time. I think those comments, in light of what happened, were absolutely right and fair and relevant.
“The crucial thing right now Laura is you’ve asked me about previous comments, and the previous comments of our chief diplomat were much more personal and undiplomatic to the president elect of the United States.”
READ MORE: I campaigned for Kamala Harris on US election day as an SNP politician
After insisting she had built a relationship with Trump based on “trust” while she was home secretary, she said: “This Government I suspect will have to work that much harder to regain trust and respect.”
Following the riots on January 6, 2021, Patel said: “Well, his [Mr Trump’s] comments directly led to the violence and so far he has failed to condemn that violence — that is completely wrong.
“What we’ve seen in Washington and the display of the violence. He basically has made a number of comments yesterday that helped to fuel that violence and he didn't do anything to de-escalate that whatsoever.
“Donald Trump should have really condemned that violence and he’s failed to do that and I actually think that’s wrong.”
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader at the time and now Deputy Prime Minister, also said the violence was directly linked to Trump.
She said: “The violence that Donald Trump has unleashed is terrifying, and the Republicans who stood by him have blood on their hands.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel