Lammy declines to condemn Trump over pet-eating migrants claim

The Foreign Secretary said: ‘I will work with whomever the Americans produce as their leader.’

The Foreign Secretary was appearing on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme (Lucy North/PA) (PA Wire)

Foreign Secretary David Lammy declined to condemn Donald Trump over the claim that Haitian immigrants were eating pet cats and dogs.

The former president, who hopes to return to the Oval Office after November’s US election, made the unproven claim during a debate with his White House rival Kamala Harris.

Mr Lammy said there was a “robust” political debate in the US and he would not comment on its domestic issues because he had to work with whoever was in the White House.

He told BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show: “I’m here as Foreign Secretary. America is one of the most robust democracies in the world. They have a lively debate.”

Mr Lammy said: “The ups and downs of the American political system, the language that’s used is a matter for them.

“I will work with whomever the Americans produce as their leader, and, of course, the eventual secretary of state, for the interests of global security.”

There is no evidence that Haitian immigrants in an Ohio community are eating pets.

But during the debate with Ms Harris, Mr Trump specifically mentioned Springfield, Ohio, saying that immigrants were taking over the city.

“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said.

Mr Lammy has not always been so reluctant to criticise Mr Trump.

In 2017, he said the former president was a “racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser” and vowed to protest on the streets if he visited the UK.