May condemns 'Far Right' over white supremacist rally
Theresa May today condemned the 'Far Right' after a white supremacist rally in Virginia erupted into violence.
The Prime Minister and Angela Merkel have joined those speaking out against racism following the bloody episode over the weekend.
But Downing Street stopped short of criticising Donald Trump over his muted response to the clashes - which saw him merely decry 'violence on many sides'.
The Prime Minister and Angela Merkel (pictured together at a summit in Hamburg last month) have joined those speaking out against racism following the bloody episode over the weekend
On Saturday, President Trump condemned the violence 'on many sides' in Charlottesville
'What the President says is a matter for him,' the PM's spokesman said.
'We are very clear. We condemn racism, hatred and violence.
'We condemn the Far Right.'
On Saturday a Nazi sympathiser, 20-year-old James Fields of Ohio, used his Dodge Charger to run over people protesting against the march, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 more.
Fields has been charged with second degree murder.
Speaking from his resort in New Jersey, Mr Trump said: 'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.'
The statement was widely criticised – including by senior Republicans – for seemingly equating the white nationalists and neo-Nazis with those marching against the hate groups.
In an apparent attempt to defuse the row, the White House later clarified the response, saying: 'The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred.
The vehicle ploughed into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville on Saturday
'Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.'
Mrs Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told reporters today that she regarded the 'extreme-right march' as an 'absolutely repulsive scene'.
He said 'there was outrageous racism, anti-Semitism and hate in its most despicable form to be seen, and whenever it comes to such speech or such images it is repugnant.'
He added that it's 'completely contrary to what the chancellor and the German government works for politically, and we are in solidarity with those who stand peacefully against such aggressive extreme-right opinions'.