Donald Trump’s pick for vice-president has said Labour will turn the UK into the world’s first Islamist nuclear power.

JD Vance, who was nominated to be Trump’s running mate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday, made the comments at last week’s National Conservatism Conference.

His reference to Labour’s landslide victory could complicate Sir Keir Starmer’s relationship with an incoming US administration should Mr Trump win November’s presidential election.

“What is the first truly Islamist country to get a nuclear weapon? And we were like, maybe it’s Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts,” Mr Vance, 39, said.

“And then we finally decided maybe it’s actually the UK since Labour took over,” the Ohio senator added.

‘He said quite a lot of fruity things’

Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, said she “doesn’t recognise” Mr Vance’s characterisation of the UK under a Labour Government.

Ms Rayner told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I think he’s said quite a lot of fruity things in the past as well.

“Look, I don’t recognise that characterisation. I’m very proud of the election success that Labour had recently. We won votes across all different communities, across the whole of the country. And we’re interested in governing on behalf of Britain and also working with our international allies.

“So I look forward to that meeting, if that is the result and it’s up to the American people to decide.”

She added: “I think political leaders across the world all have different opinions but we govern in the interests of our countries. And the US is a key ally of ours and if the American people decide who their president and vice president is, we will work with them, of course we will.

“And I’m sure they’ll have opinions on what we do and suggest, and we’ll work together constructively and I look forward to those meetings and being able to do that. That’s grown-up politics. That’s what we do.”

Treasury minister James Murray has said he does not know what Mr Vance was “driving at” when he described the UK as an “Islamist country”.

He told Sky News: “I’m very proud that we have a new Government, I’m very proud that our Labour Government is committed to national security and economic growth. I’m very clear where we are. I don’t really know how that comment fits in.”

On whether the UK has a continuing “special relationship” with the US, Mr Murray said: “I think we do, and I think we do have a special bond, irrespective of individual people or individual comments.

“And actually, that bond between the two countries obviously goes back so far, but it’s also a wide-ranging bond that we have between the UK and the US, and it will be in Britain’s interests for us to make sure that we’re working with the US about security, economic growth and so on.”

Lammy: Vance is a friend

David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, described Mr Vance as a “friend” in a speech he gave in the US in May after the two men met when Labour was still in opposition.

He has praised Mr Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which tells the story of the senator’s blue-collar roots, and drawn parallels with his own upbringing.

He has also defended his previous criticism of Mr Trump, saying many other politicians had criticised him, and stressed his transatlantic credentials.

While an opposition backbencher, Mr Lammy called Trump a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath” and a “profound threat to the international order that has been the foundation of western progress for so long”.

Labour has committed to a “nuclear deterrent triple lock”, which includes a commitment to build four new nuclear submarines, to maintain Britain’s continuous at-sea deterrent, and to deliver all necessary future upgrades to existing and future submarines.

The Government announced on Tuesday a “root and branch” strategic defence review, which the Defence Secretary said would ensure “the UK’s resilience for the long term”.

However, both Ms Rayner and Mr Lammy have previously voted against the renewal of the Trident nuclear programme.

The Foreign Secretary has since said that he has an “unshakeable” commitment to the nuclear deterrent and that the war in Ukraine had helped changed his mind, while the Deputy Prime Minister insisted that she had “never supported unilateral disarmament”.

Sadiq Khan possible target of comments

It is possible that Mr Vance’s barb was aimed at Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, who has called Mr Trump a “racist, sexist, homophobe”. Mr Khan was accused of being controlled by Islamists by Reform UK MP Lee Anderson in February.

Trump retaliated saying: “Sadiq Khan, who by all accounts has done a terrible job as Mayor of London, has been foolishly ‘nasty’ to the visiting President of the United States, by far the most important ally of the United Kingdom. 

“He is a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me.

In 2019, Trump shared a message which said the capital had become “Londonistan” under Mr Khan.

Mr Vance was serenaded with chants of “JD, JD, JD” after Mr Trump announced him as his running mate and Republicans  rubber stamped his nomination for president after Saturday’s failed assassination attempt.

Cast in the same populist mould as Mr Trump, Mr Vance is now one of the former president’s closest allies, despite once referring to him as “America’s Hitler”.

Labour is now scrabbling to cement a better relationship with the Republicans, who are in pole position to win the election after Mr Trump’s brush with death.