Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen demands Piers Morgan apologise for 'branding her a horrible racist' in Donald Trump interview

Martin Coulter26 January 2018

Britain First's deputy leader Jayda Fransen has demanded an apology from Piers Morgan for "branding her a horrible racist".

She accused the TV journalist of misrepresenting her views in his interview with Donald Trump.

Morgan referred to Britain First as "a bunch of racists [and] fascists" as he asked the US president why he shared three of her tweets in November in an interview for Good Morning Britain.

The president triggered a furious global backlash in November when he retweeted several unverified videos posted by the right-wing group's deputy leader.

The trio of anti-Islamic videos included footage of migrants allegedly assaulting a boy on crutches and a video claiming to show a Muslim destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Fransen said Trump had been "railroaded" into offering to apologise for retweeting the videos.

"In this instance he has completely misled the President of the United States by claiming I am something I am not," she said after appearing in court in Belfast on a hate speech charge.

"I have challenged Piers Morgan to sit down with me and to discuss these absolutely horrific accusations that I am a horrible, nasty racist - something I wholeheartedly refute."

Fransen said she would like to meet the President when he visited the United Kingdom and insisted he was supported by "millions of people" in the UK.

During the interview, set to be broadcast in full on Sunday night, Mr Trump said that he had known nothing about the organisation when he made the social media postings.

"If you are telling me they're horrible people, horrible, racist people, I would certainly apologise if you'd like me to do that," he told presenter Morgan.

Trump said he had not known what Britain First was when he made the three re-tweets last November.

Morgan hailed the words from Trump as "a stunning admission from the world's most powerful man."

Additional reporting by the Press Association

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