Wales’ first minister has said she does not think the incoming US president Donald Trump is racist.
During a BBC radio phone-in, Labour’s Eluned Morgan said: “There were a hell of a lot of black people and Latinos who voted for him in the election.”
Her words contrast with those of Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who called Trump “racist”, “sexist” and a “homophobe” in an interview in May and urged his party to “call him out”.
Speaking on Radio 5 Live on Thursday, Morgan said the UK had to “keep as good a relationship with the United States as we can”.
UK Labour Labour Foreign Secretary David Lammy previously called Trump a “neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”, in 2018 when he was a backbench MP, but has dismissed those comments as “old news“, insisting he would be able to find “common ground” with the president-elect.
On Thursday morning’s phone-in Morgan was asked by presenter Nicky Campbell if Trump was a racist.
“I shouldn’t think he is, to be honest,” she said.
“There were a hell of a lot of black people and Latinos who voted for him in the election.”
The first minister added that the American vote had to be respected: “We need a strong relationship with the United States irrespective of who leads the country.
“It’s our biggest area in terms of inward investment,” she said.
She said she was worried about the potential of additional tariffs, however. “It will hit our economy,” she warned.
During his election campaign Trump pledged to impose a 20% tariff on all imports into the United States and a 60% tariff on Chinese imports.
During Thursday’s programme, which marked Morgan’s first 100 days leading the Welsh government, the first minister also called for farmers to “calm down a bit” over changes to inheritance tax.
