Trump insider says UK rioters 'aren't far right' and claims PM is 'cancelling' people for 'having dissenting voices'

8 August 2024, 21:06 | Updated: 9 August 2024, 06:32

A key supporter of Donald Trump has claimed that rioters in the UK aren't politically far right and hit out at Keir Starmer for "cancelling" opponents.

Richard Grenell, tipped by some to be Mr Trump's secretary of state if he is re-elected as US president in November, told LBC's Simon Marks that UK politicians were blocking "people's right to speak out".

Mr Grenell was speaking after the first people were jailed for taking part in the riots, sparked by the killing of three girls in Southport and false rumours that spread online about the suspect's identity.

Nearly 500 people have been arrested and more people are expected to be handed prison sentences. A woman was arrested on Thursday for posting false information online about the Southport attacker's identity.

Sir Keir has said that anyone involved will "face the full force of the law" and called rioters "far-right thugs".

But Mr Grenell said he wouldn't call the riots "far right thuggery - I think it's just people who break the law."

He added: "This is a pretty simple thing. If you break the law, if you vandalise, if you riot, if you bring violence, then you're arrested.

"I'm not sure that we have to call it far right or far left."

Mr Grenell claimed that the widespread disorder that swept the US in 2020 after the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd by police was "just allowed... to happen" by politicians.

"No politician should allow the burning of buildings, violence or vandalism."

Mr Grenell said he was "one of the first people" to criticise the rioters on January 6, when supporters of Mr Trump tried to storm the US Capitol building.

"Donald Trump absolutely agrees with this - anyone who breaks the law, who vandalises, breaks into buildings, should be arrested," he said.

"The problem that we have right now is that the far left is mischaracterising a lot of protests and going to the next step of cancelling people's right to speak out, and that's what I've seen too much from UK politicians."

Mr Grenell said he thought it was "really important for politicians to be able to listen to dissenting voices."

He added: "We are in a world right now where the left constantly calls everything that they disagree with far right, and then they seek to cancel and that's not what you're supposed to do.

"I grew up with a left - a progressive party that was all about tolerance and diversity, and that's supposed to be diversity of thought, not just diversity of skin colour."

Mr Grenell claimed that "we now have progressive parties, left parties that are truly far left, and they seek to cancel people they can't handle dissenting voices.

"And so I think that what we need to be able to do is live amongst each other without trying to cancel or arrest, put in prison, or, God forbid, try to assassinate like we've seen here in the United States with Donald Trump".

Mr Grenell is a former acting director of national intelligence under Mr Trump, and a former ambassador to Germany.

He is reported to have been touring foreign governments in recent months to build links with the international right ahead of this year's election.

Some commentators have raised concerns about the relationship between the UK under Labour and a possible Trump administration.

Current Foreign Secretary David Lammy called Mr Trump a "woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath" and "a profound threat to the international order" in a 2018 tweet.

But he said in July that he could find "common ground" with Mr Trump's vice-president pick JD Vance and earlier called him "my friend".

Sir Keir has said that the so-called "special relationship" with the US would endure no matter who next occupies the White House.