David Cameron breaks convention to slam Donald Trump over 'divisive' remarks on Muslims

Ramzy Alwakeel9 December 2015

David Cameron has broken convention to condemn Donald Trump’s call for Muslims to be barred from entering the US.

The Prime Minister said the Republican presidential hopeful's controversial comments were “divisive, unhelpful and wrong”.

His intervention came after Mr Trump suggested America should effect “a total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the country.

But the PM refused to say whether Mr Trump might himself be banned from entering Britain under hate speech laws.

Comments: Donald Trump PA
Jane Barlow/PA Wire

The Downing Street statement represents a departure from the practice usually followed by British prime ministers of avoiding commentary on the merits of contenders in the US presidential race.

Mr Trump, who is hoping to win the Republican presidential nomination for the 2016 election, spoke out following the fatal shooting of 14 people at a California health centre.

The attackers, husband and wife Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, are thought to have been radicalised “for some time” prior to the attack in San Bernadino.

Mr Trump issued a campaign statement calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on”.

Other contenders for the Republican nomination rounded on him. Jeb Bush, the brother of Barack Obama’s presidential predecessor George W Bush, called Mr Trump “unhinged”.

A petition calling for Mr Trump to be banned from the UK has been lodged by campaigners against his Scottish golf course development.

The Prime Minister’s spokeswoman said: “The Prime Minister has been very clear that, as we look at how we tackle extremism and this poisonous ideology, what politicians need to do is look at ways they can bring communities together and make clear that these terrorists are not representative of Islam and indeed what they are doing is a perversion of Islam.”

Mr Cameron this week praised a witness of the Leytonstone stabbing who was heard on video telling the alleged knifeman: “You ain’t no Muslim, bruv.”

London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan - himself a Muslim - added his voice to criticism of Mr Trump.

"As a potential future mayor of London I want to be able to visit and talk to other mayors in America and learn from what they're doing," he told BuzzFeed.

"If Trump has his way, I'd be stopped at US customs."

He said Mr Trump was not just a "buffoon" but that his comments were "divisive" and "dangerous".

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