Labour minister Angela Eagle wades into US politics accusing Donald Trump of spreading 'vitriol' against immigrants and Tories of creating space for 'overt racism on our streets'

A senior Labour minister has waded into US politics by accusing Donald Trump of helping create the conditions for the growth of 'overt racism' in the UK.

Dame Angela Eagle, who is in charge of dealing with illegal migration, accused the former president and current challenger for the White House of using social media to fire 'vitriol' at migrants in the US.

Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool she also accused senior Tories - without naming them - of using a 'toxic discourse' that gave racists a 'yellow flashing light' as the party tried prevent an exodus of voters to Reform before the election .

The comments from Dame Angela, a former Labour leadership challenger, may ruffle feathers in No10 and the United States, coming hours before Sir Keir Starmer heads to New York to visit the United Nations .

The PM and other senior ministers including Foreign Secretary David Lammy have been at pains not to be seen to be taking sides ahead of the US election on November 5, despite previous criticism of Trump.

According to the Guardian , Border security Minister Dame Angela told a conference fringe event that migrants to the UK often struggle to 'rise above the constant drumbeat of toxic anti-immigration, anti-immigrant rhetoric that has become emboldened, not only in Britain but across the western countries'.

'I mean, Trump does the same. If you look at some of the memes that he's using with the wall stuff at the moment, it's astonishing, quite the level of vitriol that it has created,' she told the meeting organised by the Refugee Council.

She added: 'We had a discourse as the right of the Conservative party got more and more obsessed with what Reform was doing that was very toxic indeed, othering asylum seekers, othering human beings in general, and creating a space, I think, for overt racism on our streets.

'Because let's face it, talking about asylum seekers in the way that some government ministers did, at least gave, let me say, at least a yellow flashing light to people that wanted to indulge in a discourse about people whose skin wasn't the colour that they wanted it to be.

'Let's just put it that way. And I think creating that kind of toxic discourse around asylum is a real problem,' she said.

Keir Starmer met US President Joe Biden for a bilateral at The White House earlier this month, but has yet to meet either election candidate since becoming PM.

Last week Mr Lammy, an outspoken critic of Trump while in opposition, declined to condemn him over baseless claims that Haitian immigrants were eating pet cats and dogs.

The former president, who hopes to return to the Oval Office after November's US election, made the remarks during a debate with his White House rival Kamala Harris.

The Ohio town of Springfield was thrust into the national spotlight after Trump and his running mate JD Vance highlighted claims that Haitian migrants were stealing and eating residents' pet cats and ducks in the parks.

Mr Lammy said there was a 'robust' political debate in the US and he would not comment on its domestic issues because he had to work with whoever was in the White House.

Mr Trump last night expanded on his attacks on Haitian migrants, claiming they were over-running another Ohio town.

During a rally in the battleground swing state on Monday, the former president heard from members of his crowd who claim their hometown of Charleroi has become 'disgusting.'

Speaking at the Ed Fry Arena on the campus of Indiana University of Pennsylvania , north of Pittsburgh, Trump slammed the effect illegal immigration has on small American communities.

He claimed the population of Haitian migrants living in the western Pennsylvania town has grown by 2,000 percent, with the school district in Charleroi spending $400,000 on English Language-Learner teachers and interpreters.