JD Vance, the newly minted US Vice-Presidential candidate for Donald Trump, has ignited a firestorm of criticism from British commentators and the public after making inflammatory remarks about the tragic Southport knife attack.
In a now-deleted post on social media platform X, the Ohio Senator referred to the incident that claimed the lives of three children as a "mass stabbing" and shockingly attempted to lay blame at the feet of the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Dan Wootton's Furious Rebuke
Leading the charge of condemnation was broadcaster and columnist Dan Wootton, who did not mince his words in his response. He lambasted Vance's comments as "disgraceful," expressing his fury that a US politician would use a British tragedy for political point-scoring.
"How dare you use a devastating tragedy that resulted in the murder of three children to peddle your lies about the UK," Wootton stated emphatically in his own social media post, capturing the mood of many across the nation.
The Southport Tragedy and the CPS
Vance's central claim—that the CPS was somehow responsible for the attack—was widely dismantled as factually incorrect. The Crown Prosecution Service has no direct role in operational policing or the initial decisions to charge suspects in such cases; that duty falls to the police themselves.
The attack in Southport, Merseyside, is being treated as a murder investigation, with a 17-year-old boy arrested and subsequently charged. The community remains in a state of profound grief and shock.
A Pattern of Controversial Commentary
This incident is not Vance's first foray into controversial commentary on UK affairs. The Republican politician has previously drawn criticism for his views on other sensitive British issues, leading to accusations of overstepping and ignorance.
His latest remarks have been perceived as a crude attempt to import contentious US political debates about crime and prosecution into the UK context, with a blatant disregard for the facts and the victims involved.
The backlash serves as a stark reminder of the intense scrutiny Vance and the Trump ticket will face on the international stage, particularly regarding their commentary on foreign nations and their domestic tragedies.
