Donald Trump offers to apologise over far-right video shares

The US president said he had not meant to cause offence with a retweet that sparked a political spat with the UK

All together now: Donald Trump said he has a "really great relationship" with Theresa May despite video spat REUTERS/Carlos Barria TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Donald Trump has offered to apologise after sharing anti-Muslim videos posted online by a British far-right extremist group.

The US president said that he knew nothing about the anti-immigration Britain First group but said he would apologise if they were “horrible racist” people.

"Here's what's fair, if you're telling me they're horrible people, horrible racist people I would certainly apologise if you would like me to do that," Trump said in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme.

"I know nothing about them. I don’t want to be involved with people, but you're telling me about these people because I know nothing about these people."

The retweets of the videos caused outrage in Britain and led to a public spat with the UK’s prime minister, Theresa May, who criticised him. Mr Trump hit back on Twitter with the exchange seized on to indicate relations were rocky between the two leaders.

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Mr Trump last month cancelled a planned visit to London to open the new US embassy, claiming that the sale of the old building in the centre of the capital had represented a bad deal for the US. He is due to visit later this year with demonstrations expected because of his policies on climate change and immigration, and controversy over his comments about women.

The two leaders met yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where the president insisted the pair had a “really great relationship”. Mr Trump is due to speak at the gathering of global business and political leaders on Friday where he is expected to promote his America First agenda.

In the interview, Mr Trump said that he had not intended to cause offence and claimed that he was the "least racist person that anybody's going to meet".

Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of Britain First, posted the videos which she claimed showed a group of people who were Muslims beating a teenage boy to death, battering a boy on crutches and destroying a Christian statue.