“I don’t recognize those comments,” Lammy told Sky News on Thursday, when told of Vance’s words. “We got votes in the election from all corners of the country and all sorts of people.”
Pressed on Vance’s negative comments about the war in Ukraine, Lammy told the BBC that this is “why I’ve been engaged with J.D. Vance now over many, many months.”
“Yes he had strong things to say about European defenses, and he has had a point of view about Ukraine,” Lammy said.
“There is a perspective of views in the Republican Party, no doubt about that. We will seek to influence as you would expect.”
The U.K. foreign secretary has also faced questions about previous comments he himself made about Donald Trump.
While a backbench Labour MP in 2018, Lammy described Trump as a “neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath” ahead of a visit from the then-president to the U.K.
But Lammy has refused to criticize Trump over recent month.
“You’re going to struggle to find any politician who has not had things to say about Donald Trump in his first term,” Lammy told Sky News Thursday.