United Kingdom shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry on Tuesday accused US President Donald Trump of being a “sexual predator” and “a racist,” Politico EU reported.
“A state visit is an honor, and we don’t think that this president deserves an honor," Thornberry, a frequent critic of Trump, said.
"He is a sexual predator, he is a racist, and it’s right to say that," she added. "And I think we need to think about when is it that our country got so scared. Why can’t we start saying things as they are?"
The politician reportedly appeared on BBC’s “Today” radio program to praise Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn's decision to boycott Trump's UK state visit this week, saying it was a necessary step to take against a "bully."
She also criticized the British government for "fawning all over Trump" and "holding his hand," according to the news outlet.
"It’s like the way you deal with a bully. If you bow down in front of them, you get kicked harder,” Thornberry added.
This is not the first time that the British politician has unloaded on Trump’s behavior, previously also calling him an “asteroid of awfulness that has fallen on this world.”
Thornberry told the radio show on Tuesday that she is angry about Trump and his visit to the UK because she loves the US and its values.
“When you have a close friend and they’re going wrong, you are more likely to be more adamant with them, clearer with them, than with someone who has not been as close a friend and you are trying to build a relationship with them,” Thornberry said, according to Politico EU.
Thornberry is among several members of the left-leaning Labour Party who are planning to join Tuesday's protest against Trump’s visit.
As many as 250,000 protestors are expected to march from Trafalgar Square to Downing Street, according to The Telegraph.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote in an op-ed on Saturday that the United Kingdom was on the “wrong side of history” ahead of Trump's visit.
The president responded to the statement by calling Khan a "stone cold loser" in an early morning tweet Monday.
".@SadiqKhan, who by all accounts has done a terrible job as Mayor of London, has been foolishly 'nasty' to the visiting President of the United States, by far the most important ally of the United Kingdom," Trump tweeted. "He is a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me."
(Source: The Hill)