Britain has criticised US President Donald Trump after he retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by the leader of a far-right British party.
Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of the anti-immigration Britain First group, posted the videos which she said showed a group of people who were Muslims beating a teenage boy to death, battering a boy on crutches and destroying a Christian statue.
Mr Trump's decision to re-tweet the videos prompted criticism from both sides of the Atlantic, with some British MPs demanding an apology and US Muslim groups saying it was incendiary and reckless.
"It is wrong for the president to have done this," the spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May said.
"Britain First seeks to divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions. They cause anxiety to law-abiding people."
Re one of the unverified Islamophobic retweets from POTUS ⬇️ https://t.co/ytM7QRgcbF
— Caitriona Perry (@CaitrionaPerry) November 29, 2017
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the videos and Ms Fransen herself said they had come from various online sources which had been posted on her social media pages.
"I'm delighted," Ms Fransen, who has 53,000 Twitter followers, told Reuters, saying it showed the US president shared her aim of raising awareness of "issues such as Islam".
As a candidate, Mr Trump called for "a Muslim ban" and, as president, has issued executive orders banning entry to some citizens of multiple countries, although courts have partially blocked the measures from taking effect.
"Look, I'm not talking about the nature of the video," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.
"The threat is real and that's what the president is talking about is the need for national security, the need for military spending, and those are very real things. There's nothing fake about that."
Britain First is a peripheral political party which wants to end all immigration and bring in a comprehensive ban on Islam, with anyone found to be promoting the religion's ideology to be deported or imprisoned.
The group, which rarely garners any media attention but attracts a few hundred protesters to its regular street demonstrations, states on its website it is a "loyalist movement". Critics say it is simply racist.
Britain First gained prominence in June 2016 when Labour MP Jo Cox was shot dead on the street by a Nazi-obsessed loner who witnesses said had been shouting "Britain first"during the attack.
Ms Fransen said the killer had nothing to do with her group.
Mrs Cox's husband, Brendan, tweeted that Mr Trump had legitimised the far right by retweeting the anti-Muslims posts.
Trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now he’s trying to do it in ours. Spreading hatred has consequences & the President should be ashamed of himself.
— Brendan Cox (@MrBrendanCox) November 29, 2017
Mr Trump also used his Twitter feed to react to news that NBC News has fired 'Today' show host Matt Lauer after receiving what it called a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behaviour in the workplace.
"On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behaviour in the workplace by Matt Lauer," NBC News chairman Andrew Lack said in a statement.
"It represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our companys standards. As a result, we've decided to terminate his employment.
"While it is the first complaint about his behaviour in the over 20 years he's been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident," the statement said.
Wow, Matt Lauer was just fired from NBC for "inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace." But when will the top executives at NBC & Comcast be fired for putting out so much Fake News. Check out Andy Lack’s past!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2017
