Scottish Tory MP condemns ‘Islamist country nuclear weapon’ claim by Donald Trump's vice-president pick

Scottish Tory MP Andrew Bowie has condemned comments made by Donald Trump's vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, after the American said the UK could become the first "truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon".

Mr Vance, the junior senator of Ohio and author of the memoir Hillbilly Elegy, was speaking at a conference for US Conservatives when he made the comments. Once one of the former president's biggest critics, Mr Vance has now been confirmed as Mr Trump's running mate.

Speaking at the National Conservatism conference on Thursday, Mr Vance said: "I have to beat up on the UK - just one additional thing. I was talking with a friend recently and we were talking about, you know, one of the big dangers in the world, of course, is nuclear proliferation, though, of course, the [Joe] Biden administration doesn't care about it.

"And I was talking about, you know, what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon, and we were like, maybe it's Iran, you know, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we sort of finally decided maybe it's actually the UK, since Labour just took over."

Asked if Labour was creating an “Islamist country” on Times Radio, Mr Bowie, the shadow minister for veteran affairs, answered “absolutely not”.

He said: “I disagree with the Labour Party fundamentally on many issues, but I do not agree with that view, quite frankly. I think it's actually quite offensive, frankly, to my colleagues in the Labour Party. They have just won the election. It's now up to us to form an opposition. But we need to relearn how to disagree agreeably and have those full, frank disagreements out in public. Absolutely.

“But be able to do so with civility, because the coarsening of public debate and the rise of political violence that we saw with repercussions just this weekend, the United States of America is something that we've all got to work to combat and ensure that we move political discourse back to a sensible, safe ground."

Mr Bowie’s comments went further than deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, who told ITV’s Good Morning Britain she didn’t “recognise that characterisation”.

She said: “I’m very proud of the election success that Labour had recently. We won votes across all different communities, across the whole of the country. And we’re interested in governing on behalf of Britain and also working with our international allies.”

Mr Bowie also commented on the manner of the Tories defeat at the election, urging his party to learn the lessons from it, but “not move to the right”.

He said: "I don't think we should be blaming anybody for our defeat. I think what we need to do is take time, take stock, reflect on why we suffered the result that we did and then move forward from that. Learn the lessons of the general election just gone and come together to form a credible opposition to this new government and present an alternative government to the country in four or five years.

“That's the role of every member of Parliament that was returned last week. So I think this focusing on who was to blame really is the wrong discussion to be having. It's where we go from now."