Downing Street has said Donald Trump was “wrong” to share anti-Muslim videos posted online by the deputy leader of far-right group Britain First.
The US president retweeted to his 43.6 million followers three posts by Jayda Fransen on Wednesday, including unverified footage purporting to show Muslims committing crimes.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Britain First sought to divide communities through its use of “hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions”.
“It is wrong for the president to have done this,” the spokesman said.
The posts shared by the president included unverified videos titled “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!” and “Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary!”
Fransen, 31, who was convicted last November of religiously aggravated harassment for hurling abuse at a Muslim woman in a hijab, appeared to celebrate the president’s actions, tweeting moments later “GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP”.
The PM’s spokesman said that Britain First “cause anxiety to law-abiding people”, adding that: “British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far-right which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents – decency tolerance and respect.”
Image taken from the Twitter feed of Donald Trump (Donald Trump/Twitter/PA)
The spokesman made clear that the controversial invitation for the president to make a state visit to the UK, made when Theresa May met Mr Trump in Washington in January, still stood.
“The invitation for a state visit has been extended and accepted. Further details will be announced in due course,” the spokesman said.
Earlier Home Secretary Amber Rudd did not immediately respond when Labour MPs raised the issue in Parliament, where Stephen Doughty called the posts “highly inflammatory” and Yvette Cooper said the president had given Fransen a “huge platform”.
Some MPs shouted “go on, stand up” at Ms Rudd stayed in her seat.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: “I hope our Government will condemn far-right retweets by Donald Trump. They are abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society.”
And the widower of MP Jo Cox, who was murdered by right-wing extremist Thomas Mair as he shouted “Britain first”, was among those who condemned the posts.
Brendan Cox tweeted: “Trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now he’s trying to do it in ours. Spreading hatred has consequences & the President should be ashamed of himself.”
A spokesman for anti-fascism campaign group Hope not Hate said: “It beggars belief that a US president would share this material. Even Donald Trump.
“Anyone with half a brain knows that Britain First is an extreme right movement that has had links to Loyalism, claims to “invade” mosques, used murdered British soldier Lee Rigby’s name against the wishes of his family to help it campaign in elections, and has bought many of its supposed followers on social media.”
He added: “What on earth was Trump thinking, trying to propel it forwards?”
The posts shared by the president appeared to fit a pattern of Britain First re-posting old videos with misleading captions and no information about the date or context.
In one example, press reports of the May 2017 incident depicted in the first video did not mention the attacker’s religion and Dutch police requested the video was removed at the request of the victim.
Image taken from the Twitter feed of Donald Trump (Donald Trump/Twitter/PA)
The first video, which Fransen claimed showed a Muslim migrant attacking a Dutch man on crutches, was also shared by one of Mr Trump’s most vocal supporters, conservative commentator Ann Coulter.
The other two videos, which are thought to be from 2013, do not appear in sequence in Fransen’s timeline.
It is not the first time Mr Trump has retweeted posts from controversial Twitter accounts or shared messages from accounts with apparent ties to white nationalist groups.
One example was his sharing of a tweet about “pizzagate”, an unfounded conspiracy theory that claims Democrats harboured child sex slaves at a pizza restaurant.
In June this year, a Press Association analysis found Facebook and Twitter had failed to take down a number of misleading videos posted by Britain First despite them having received hundreds of thousands of views.
Videos posted by the nationalist group often target minority groups, and the analysis found they consistently posted false claims about the circumstances being shown – including untrue claims that Muslims and migrants had attacked women and police.
Fransen, from Penge, south-east London, was fined £2,000 at Luton and South Bedfordshire Magistrates’ Court in November 2016 for wearing a political uniform and shouting at Sumayyah Sharpe during a “Christian patrol” of Bury Park in Luton on January 23.
She is on bail facing trial over four charges of causing religiously aggravated harassment as part of a Kent Police investigation into the distribution of leaflets and the posting of online videos during a trial held at Canterbury Crown Court in May.
She will go on trial at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court on January 29, alongside Britain First leader Paul Golding, who faces three similar charges.
Fransen will also appear in court in Northern Ireland in December charged with using threatening and abusive language in connection with a speech she made at an anti-terrorism demonstration in Belfast on August 6.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters she would not comment on the veracity of the videos.
In footage shared by broadcaster NBC News, she said: “I’m not talking about the nature of the video. I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing. The threat is real and that’s what the president is talking about … is the need for national security, the need for military spending, and those are very real things, there’s nothing fake about that.”
She added: “The threat is real, the threat needs to be addressed, the threat has to be talked about and that’s what the president is doing in bringing that up.”