David Cameron has said he would be happy to meet Donald Trump despite renewing his attack on the Presidential candidate and branding his policy towards Muslims as “dangerous”.
The Prime Minister, who has previously referred to the presumptive Republican candidate’s plans to temporarily stop Muslims from entering the United States as “divisive, stupid and wrong”, went a step further and said Mr Trump’s comment were “dangerous”.
It comes after Mr Trump said last week that he has already been invited to Downing Street for talks with the Prime Minister. However, a spokesperson for Number 10 said to The Independent that “given the parties have yet to choose their nominees, there are no confirmed dates for this”.
They added: “It’s long-standing practice for the PM to meet with the Republican and Democrat Presidential nominees if they visit the UK.”
Asked on ITV's Robert Peston show whether he was going to see Mr Trump before the American election the Prime Minister said: “I don’t know. American Presidential candidates have made a habit of coming through Europe and through the UK and so if that happens, I’d be very happy to [meet him]”.
He added: “I don’t withdraw in any way what I said about the policy of not letting Muslims into America. I do think that is wrong and divisive as I said because we’ve got to demonstrate that we’re up against here is a very small minority of a minority: Islamist extremists that want to divide our societies.
“We’ve got to explain that there are millions and billions of people in our world that worship…that are devout Muslims but believe in liberal democracy and all the things we believe in. It’s a very dangerous thing to say, I am making it worse now, as well as a divisive and wrong one”.
In an interview with Pierce Morgan on ITV last week Mr Trump was asked whether Mr Cameron was damaging the special relationship with his recent comments.
He responded: “Honestly, I don’t care, it doesn’t matter. It looks like we’re not going to have a very good relationship. I hope to have a good relationship with him, but it sounds like he’s not willing to address the problem either.
“Number one, I’m not stupid, I can tell you that right now, just the opposite. I don’t think I’m a divisive person, I’m a unifier, unlike our president now.”
