SHADOW foreign secretary Priti Patel has defended saying president-elect Donald Trump directly provoked violence seen in the US Capitol in January 2021.
In a heated interview on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Patel said she felt the comments were “right, fair and relevant” despite having criticised her Government counterpart David Lammy for previously calling Trump a “neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”.
In chaotic scenes on January 6, Trump’s supporters breached the Senate chamber in Washington DC as politicians were convening to formally certify Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.
Patel said at the time that Trump’s statement, in which he said “we love you” to the rioters and repeated his unproven claims of electoral fraud, did “very little to de-escalate the situation” and argued his comments “directly led to the violence”.
She was heavily grilled about the comments on the BBC programme and seemed initially reluctant to stand by them.
Host Kuenssberg said: “You’ve said several times you think this [Labour] Government has to work really hard to make peace with Donald Trump in order to move forward.
“After the Capitol riots, you yourself said that Donald Trump’s comments directly led to violence and he did very little to de-escalate the situation. Do you want to apologise to him as you’ve asked the Labour Party to do?”
Patel replied: “Well that was a major situation, I was home secretary at the time and we were obviously working with our US counterparts on security issues so, no one wants to see violence after elections.”
Eventually, after the fourth time of asking, Patel stood by her remarks but insisted Lammy’s comments were “much more personal”.
She said: “We were absolutely worried at the time. I think those comments, in light of what happened, were absolutely right and fair and relevant.
“The crucial thing right now Laura is you’ve asked me about previous comments, and the previous comments of our chief diplomat were much more personal and undiplomatic to the president elect of the United States.”
After insisting she had built a relationship with Trump based on “trust” while she was home secretary, she said: “This Government I suspect will have to work that much harder to regain trust and respect.”
Following the riots on January 6, 2021, Patel said: “Well, his [Mr Trump’s] comments directly led to the violence and so far he has failed to condemn that violence — that is completely wrong.
“What we’ve seen in Washington and the display of the violence. He basically has made a number of comments yesterday that helped to fuel that violence and he didn't do anything to de-escalate that whatsoever.
“Donald Trump should have really condemned that violence and he’s failed to do that and I actually think that’s wrong.”
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader at the time and now Deputy Prime Minister, also said the violence was directly linked to Trump.
She said: “The violence that Donald Trump has unleashed is terrifying, and the Republicans who stood by him have blood on their hands.”
