Emily Thornberry, the long-serving Labour MP, took aim at Donald Trump during Thursday’s Question Time, which was recorded in Macclesfield, Cheshire, amid the Greenland row
The audience on Question Time applauded last night as Donald Trump was branded “a bully” and “an international gangster”.
Two panellists, including long-serving Labour MP Emily Thornberry, took aim at the US President during a discussion about the UK and the US’ “special relationship”. Ms Thornberry, who represents Islington South and Finsbury, slammed Mr Trump for comments suggesting the US has “never needed NATO”.
She said: “It’s an absolute insult. It’s an insult to 457 families who lost someone in Afghanistan. How dare he say we weren’t on the front line? How dare he? We have always been there whenever the Americans have wanted us, we have always been there.”
This led to applause from the crowd at Macclesfield, Cheshire, one member of which had asked whether Mr Trump “can be trusted”. Ms Thornberry appeared to suggest otherwise, adding: “How dare this man who has never seen any action, who somehow or other when there was a draft for everybody else in the United States managed to avoid it do this? Now when he is commander and chief, he knows nothing about how America has been defended. I mean seriously, it is an absolute insult.”
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Mr Trump had dismissed the sacrifice of more than 400 Brits who served and died in Afghanistan – claiming they “stayed a little back, off the front line.” Lucy Aldridge – whose son William was the youngest Brit to die in Afghanistan – said Mr Trump’s remarks were “extremely upsetting” amid the criticism the slur sparked on Thursday.
And it continued on a lively Question Time, which returned last night for its new series, as Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat politician also on the panel, called the world leader “a bully” and “an international gangster”. She said: “Who needs enemies whrn you’ve got friends like Donald Trump, seriously? The Liberal Democrats have long argued now that we should have learned from the first Trump presidency.
“We know what this guy is like. We are in a school. He is a bully, you are absolutely right Emily, he is a bully. He is behaving like an international gangster and they only understand strength. If you aren’t strong enough to stand up on your own, you get your friends around you and you do it altogether.”
The US President made his vile insult as he continued to pressure Nato allies to grant him greater control over Greenland. Veterans and bereaved families of people who served in Afghanistan were left furious by the remarks, made in a TV interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
