Trump's refusal to condemn Putin attacked by top Tories

Heseltine warns that US alignment with Russia on UN vote will ‘act as an incentive’ to those who endanger world peace

- DAVID MADDOX ALEXANDER BUTLER

Donald Trump is risking world peace by siding with North Korea, China and Belarus in refusing to condemn Vladimir Putin, senior Tories have claimed.

In a chilling warning, former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine said the US president risks forming a “new axis” that will reward Russia and its allies.

Lord Heseltine spoke out after the Trump administration, alongside Russia, North Korea and Belarus, rejected a UN resolution condemning Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The resolution was backed by 93 nations.

The vote came just hours before French president Emmanuel Macron visited Mr Trump in the White House and ahead of Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to Washington tomorrow.

North Korea was one of the nations named in the “axis of evil” speech made by US president George W Bush following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US.

Lord Heseltine, who was in the UK government which stood alongside the US against Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, told The Independent: “Those of us who admire America will find this axis of the US with China, Russia and North Korea in a UN vote inexplicable.