President Donald Trump’s Friday tweet linking increased UK crime rate to Radical Islamic terror has been described as fuelling hate crime.

The president wrote: “Just out report: ‘United Kingdom crime rises 13% annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror.’ Not good, we must keep America safe!

However, notable British politicians have come out to berate the assertion. Labour MP, Yvette Cooper, chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, said the statement was “inflammatory and ignorant”.

According to latest figures published on Thursday, crime in England and Wales went up by 13% in the 12 months to June, fuelled by a 26% increase in knife crime and a 19% increase in sexual offenses. The number of homicides (cases of murder and manslaughter) increased by 46 to 629, excluding the terror attacks in London and Manchester.

Yvette Cooper said in a statement: “Hate crime in the UK has gone up by almost 30% and rubbish like this tweet from Donald Trump is designed to provoke even more of it. It is appalling that we have reached the point where inflammatory and ignorant statements from the President of the United States are now seen as normal”, adding that, “If we are to properly tackle hate crime and every other crime, we have to challenge this kind of nonsense”.

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas also said: “Donald Trump’s reactionary tweet isn’t just inaccurate, it’s also inflammatory. It’s about time that the British government take a stand against Trump’s bigotry, and make a clear public statement saying that his damaging remarks are unwelcome”, calling on Theresa May to “publicly condemn” Donald Trump for “outright fearmongering”.

Conservative backbencher Nicholas Soames, grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, responded to Mr Trump’s tweet by calling the US president a “daft twerp” who needed to “fix gun control”, while former Labour minister, Hilary Benn, told BBC News: “I am sure we would all appreciate it if we could see a reduction in the number of tweets like this from the president of the United States.”

In addition, Labour’s Deputy Leader, Tom Watson, tweeted: “Officer, I’d like to report a hate crime”, while his Liberal counterpart, Jo Swinson also responded to the president’s tweet, accusing him of “misleading and spreading fear”

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