London - Downing Street rejected demands on Wednesday for David Cameron to apologise for branding Donald Trump “divisive, stupid and wrong” over his call to ban Muslims from America.
An aide to the US billionaire, now the sole candidate for the Republican presidential nomination after his last two rivals dropped out of the race, said it was time for the Prime Minister to say sorry and invite Mr Trump to Britain.
No 10 confirmed that the Government would reach out to the New York property tycoon now that he has effectively claimed the Republican nomination for this year’s presidential race.
But George Papadopoulos, who advises Mr Trump on foreign policy, said: “It would seem that if Prime Minister Cameron is serious about reaching out, not only to Mr Trump’s advisers but to the man himself, an apology or some sort of retraction should happen.
“To see Mr Cameron come out as the most vocal opponent was uncalled for.
“Considering we believe the UK-US relationship should be a cornerstone not just of Nato policy but elsewhere, it would be wise for him to reach out in a more positive manner to Mr Trump.”
However, a No 10 source said Mr Cameron stood by the remarks he made to the Commons last year, adding: “The Prime Minister has no intention of withdrawing his comments, which were made in response to comments made by Donald Trump about banning Muslims from entering the US.”
Mr Trump’s comments prompted a petition in Britain for the Government to ban him from entering the country. At the time, he was a relative outsider in the Republican race and Mr Cameron took the opportunity to signal support for the public outrage.
He went further than other world leaders, but was joined in his condemnation by senior figures in Britain including Boris Johnson and George Osborne.
The London mayor and MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip said Mr Trump was “clearly out of his mind”, while the Chancellor described his views as nonsense that should be defeated.
But yesterday the tycoon revelled in his landslide victory in the Indiana primary, which prompted Ted Cruz, the only other viable Republican contender, and moderate candidate John Kasich to pull out of the race for the party’s nomination.
Mr Cruz made a bad night even worse on Tuesday by accidentally elbowing his wife Heidi in the face while hugging his father Rafael after his concession speech.
Just hours before Mr Kasich’s team announced that he too would drop out, they had launched a Star Wars-style video declaring him “our only hope”.
The decision leaves Mr Trump the only survivor among the 17 contenders for the Republican ticket.
He is now almost certain to win the 1 237 delegates he needs before the Republican convention in July.
At a victory rally at Manhattan’s Trump Tower, he turned his attention to his likely Democrat challenger for the White House and promised Republicans he would not let them down.
“We’re going to win big league - we’re going after Hillary Clinton,” he told cheering supporters.
In a boast widely ridiculed as a grammatical howler, he also vowed that the US would no longer lose when he is president.
“We’re are going to start winning again and we’re going to win bigly, believe me,” he said.
He described Mrs Clinton, who lost in Indiana to her Left-wing challenger Bernie Sanders, as “horrible on the economy, horrible on jobs [and] really horrible on the military”.
Many Republicans are shellshocked by Mr Trump’s historic victory, which puts him on track to become the first Republican nominee since Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s never to have served in elected office.
Rallying behind a “Never Trump” campaign, some have been burning their voting registration cards while others are even talking of voting for Mrs Clinton.
But Republican national committee chairman Reince Priebus declared Mr Trump the “presumptive nominee” and urged members to rally behind him, saying: “Something different and something new is probably good for our party.”
Daily Mail