A QUARTER of Keir Starmer’s “spineless” Cabinet slammed Donald Trump’s first state visit to the UK.
A total of seven Cabinet ministers – including the current Foreign Secretary and Scottish Secretary – accused the US president of “misogynism, racism and xenophobia” on the eve of his 2019 visit.
A motion signed by 106 MPs before Trump’s last visit poured scorn on the commander in chief, highlighting his climate-denying extremism and called on the then-prime minister Theresa May to cancel his invitation.
Put forward by Stephen Doughty, now a Foreign Office minister, it also slammed Trump’s comments about Sadiq Khan – who was at the time and remains Mayor of London.
Trump had previously called Khan a “stone-cold loser who should focus on crime in London” and in 2016 challenged him to take an IQ test.
It comes as Trump continues his trip to Scotland, visiting his golf courses in Aberdeen and [[Aberdeen]]shire and having meetings with [[Keir Starmer]] and John Swinney. His second state visit is expected in September.
Doughty’s motion was sponsored by Alison McGovern, Angela Eagle and Catherine West, who are now ministers in the Department for Work and Pensions, the Home Office and the Foreign Office, respectively.
Cabinet ministers who backed the scathing Trump take-down include Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Scottish Secretary Ian Murray and Labour Party chair Ellie Reeves (above).
Also from the current Cabinet are Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens, Environment Secretary Steve Reed and Lucy Powell, the leader of the House of Commons.
Additionally, 13 current ministers and Government whips signed the motion and two former ministers: Tulip Siddiq and Anneliese Dodds.
The motion said the Commons “deplores the record of US president Donald Trump, including his misogyny, racism and xenophobia”.
It went on to condemn “his previous comments on women, refugees and torture” and his “lack of action on climate change and failure to support the Paris Climate Change Deal”.
The motion concluded by noting the “historical significance and honour that comes with the choice to offer a full state visit to an individual” and demanded that May revoke Trump’s invitation.
Trump’s first state visit to the UK was met with immense controversy, with then-Commons speaker John Bercow making an unprecedented intervention on the matter, telling MPs: “Before the imposition of the migrant ban, I would myself have been strongly opposed to an address by president Trump in Westminster Hall.
“After the imposition of the migrant ban, I am even more strongly opposed to an address by president Trump in Westminster Hall.”
His comments were applauded by the opposition benches after saying that Parliament should demonstrate its “opposition to racism and sexism”.
The Scottish Secretary (above) last week claimed that Trump could expect a “warm welcome” in Scotland – despite the police saying they would be managing their biggest operation, due in part to major protests, since the Queen’s death.
Murray said: “The office of the president of the United States and the office of the Prime Minister are ones that work very, very closely together, and should do, because it’s in our national interest to do so.”
Lammy has also changed his tune dramatically on Trump since his first presidency. In 2018, the then-backbencher called Trump a “tyrant” and “a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”.
Confronted about his past comments, following Trump’s re-election, Lammy dismissed them as “old news”, claiming one would “struggle to find any politician" who had not said some "pretty ripe things" about Trump in the past.
He added: “I think that what you say as a backbencher and what you do wearing the real duty of public office are two different things.
“And I am Foreign Secretary. There are things I know now that I didn't know back then.”
Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie (above) told the Sunday National: “Labour’s capitulation to [[Donald Trump]] is spineless, unprincipled, immoral and dangerous.
“[[Donald Trump]] is a dangerous authoritarian who is actively trying to dismantle democratic institutions, has threatened to invade our allies in Canada and Greenland, is advocating ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and is abducting innocent people off the street to send to foreign torture camps.
“But instead of standing up for those who are under attack, Labour have chosen to give him, in the words of Scottish Secretary Ian Murray, a ‘warm welcome’. In doing so, they lend his agenda international credibility, helping him to expand it at home and abroad.
“If Labour can’t even stand up against Trump, they don’t stand for anything at all.”
Labour were approached for comment.
