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Thornberry: Trump 'styles out' allegations that he is racist but 'important to have meetings with him'

Labour MP Emily Thornberry, asked about the prime minister meeting potential future US president, has said that Donald Trump “styles it out somewhat” with alleged racism.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chair said:

If he’s president and he starts caging Mexican children, then that needs to be called out. We are actually in a really strong position now, in that if you think about all the other G7 countries, we are a country that we have just had an election, we have a progressive Government with a large majority and stability in front of us - a good five years of the same leader. And if you look at the other G7 countries, they don’t necessarily have that.

PA Media reports askedwhether Mr Trump should be labelled a “racist”, Thornberry said: “It depends how he is behaving. I mean, he seems – he styles it out somewhat, doesn’t he, these allegations? I mean, you know, we hear about the dogs and cats and so on just a few weeks ago. If I was at dinner with someone who said things like that, then I would call it out.”

Thornberry was referring to the Trump campaign recently claiming, without evidence, that immigrants were stealing and eating pets, an oft-repeated racist trope.

She went on to say:

Donald Trump may be the president of the United States in a couple of months’ time so of course, it’s important to have meetings with him and to build a relationship with him.

Whatever criticisms one may have of Donald Trump, the point is that the office of president is one that needs to be properly respected and the Americans are very close friends of ours.

I think that this is an initial meeting, so there needs to be a certain amount of relationship building and we take it from there [but] I do think that if there are things the American president does or says that we disagree with, then we shouldn’t pull our punches.

We might be about to find out who the new Scottish leader of the Conservatives is, but we are still some distance away from finding out who the next UK-wide leader of the opposition will be, as the Conservative party leadership election continues until the end of October.

Frances Ryan has written for us today, suggesting there is “little sign that the Conservatives have any real understanding of what got them” to electoral defeat in July.

Read more here: Frances Ryan – Of course the wannabe Tory leaders have regrets. They think they weren’t toxic or nasty enough

New leader of the Scottish Conservatives to be announced

The new leader of the Scottish Conservatives is expected to be announced at 10am. Russell Findlay, Murdo Fraser and Meghan Gallacher are the three options on the ballot paper to take over from Douglas Ross.

The Conservatives are currently the second largest group in the Scottish parliament with 31 MSPs. The Conservatives returned five MPs from Scotland in July’s general election.

Brian Whittle, Jamie Greene and Liam Kerr previously dropped their bids to lead the party at Holyrood.

Almost immediately whoever wins will be taking part in a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of devolution being on Saturday, before heading to the Conservative conference in Birmingham which begins on Sunday.

Welcome and opening summary …

Good morning, and welcome to Friday’s UK politics live blog. We are expecting to find out who will be the new leader of the Conservatives in Scotland at 10am. Here are your headlines …

• Keir Starmer is in the US and has met with Donald Trump in a push for a good relationship if the latter wins November’s tight US election race

• Starmer has also attempted to downplay interest in his living arrangements, saying the public can make their own judgments about gifts and maintains no rules have been broken

• Former cabinet minister Sayeeda Warsi has resigned the Conservative whip, saying the party had moved too far to the right

• Campaign groups have urged the government to cancel major road building schemes including the Lower Thames Crossing

Aside from the Scottish Conservative leadership election, there is not a great deal in the political diary today, with the House of Lords the only legislature sitting today, and Amanda Burton and Sir Martin Donnelly appearing at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry the most notable other things scheduled.

It is Martin Belam with you today – do drop me a line at martin.belam@theguardian.com if you spot typos, errors or omissions.