LONDON 

Senior figures in the UK Labour Party firmly rejected remarks by former US President and presidential candidate Donald Trump's vice-presidential pick, who suggested that under Labour, Britain could become the first nuclear-armed "truly Islamist country." 

JD Vance, a junior senator from Ohio recently announced as Trump's running mate for the 2024 presidential election, made the controversial statement at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington earlier this month.

"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 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," he said.

Angela Rayner, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister, responded to the comments in an interview with broadcaster ITV, saying: "I don’t recognize that characterization. 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."

Rayner also noted that Vance has made "quite a lot of fruity things in the past" and expressed her willingness to meet him and Trump if they succeed in the upcoming US election.

The remarks by Vance are seen as particularly awkward for the UK's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who has been making efforts to build a rapport with Vance, citing their similar modest economic backgrounds as common ground.

Treasury minister James Murray also told Sky News: "I don't know what he was driving at in that comment, to be honest. I mean, in Britain, we're very proud of our diversity."