US President Donald Trump honed in on knife crime in London in a speech justifying the right to own guns in the US.
"I recently read a story that in London, which has unbelievably tough gun laws, a once very prestigious hospital, right in the middle, is like a war zone for horrible stabbing wounds," he said on Friday.
He made the comments at a meeting of the National Rifle Association, which campaigns to protect the US Second Amendment giving Americans the right to bear arms.
The president appeared to refer to a Daily Mail article published last month in which Martin Griffiths, a trauma surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust, said he was treating children as young as 13 for stab wounds, and compared scenes in the hospital to an "Afghan war zone".
"Yes, that's right, they don't have guns, they have knives, and instead there's blood all over the floors of this hospital," Trump said. "They say it's as bad as a military war zone hospital. Knives, knives, knives. London hasn't been used to that. They're getting used to it. It's pretty tough."
Trump tells the NRA that knives—not guns—turned a London hospital into a “war zone” https://t.co/qf4xfAfgbc
"We're here today because we recognise a simple fact. The one thing that has always stood between the American people and the elimination of our Second Amendment rights, has been conservatives in Congress willing to fight for those rights. We will fight."
His comments come after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February sparked worldwide protests for tighter gun control laws in the US.
Trump is scheduled to travel to the UK on a working visit on 13 July, when he will meet prime minister Theresa May. More than 43,000 people are due to protest the visit in London that day, according to a Facebook group.
Trump's remarks were met with stark criticism from British media figures and commentators, who said that they painted an "unrecognisable" picture of the UK capital.
Painting a bleak (and unrecognisable) picture of our great Capital- @realDonaldTrump doing his bit for @visitlondon ahead of a scheduled stop in London on July 13th. https://t.co/5aEi8JokLv
Alan Sugar, Trump's Apprentice counterpart in the UK, criticised journalist Piers Morgan for "sucking up" to the president. Morgan came under fire in January for being openly friendly in an interview with Trump, giving the president a personalised Arsenal shirt.
.@piersmorgan You cant keep sucking up to Trump. He says in London one of our famous hospital is like a war zone with knife incidents.LIE. How can you endorse this man. Most Americans have no clue about what goes on outside thier state let alone country.They believe his lies
Labour peer Lord Charlie Falconer lamented that Americans might believe the picture Trump painted of London.
4.88 per 100000 murdered in US per annum, 0.92 per 100000 in UK. Implication UK has similar murder rate to US except knives not guns obviously false. Trump lies on everything, but lots of people in US now believe London a knife-armed war zone. https://t.co/4G9JGLeWBg
Shaun Dooley, former Coronation Street and EastEnders actor, suggested that Trump visit the hospital himself to see if it fitted the description.
@Channel4News @realDonaldTrump Perhaps when you come to London you can visit this hospital for yourself. Really show the world the true horror of it. What do you reckon?
Journalists at the London office of Breitbart News, where former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was executive chair until this year, criticised the reaction.
@Channel4News @realDonaldTrump British press is in denial about President Trump's knife crime speech – he was only quoting Mark Griffiths, lead surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust in East London. Strange they never called Dr Griffths a liar when he first made the comments on BBC radio... 🤔 https://t.co/rF1pJVUvRH