London Mayor Sadiq Khan has responded to US President Donald Trump's personal attack on him and the city from the podium of the UN.
The American leader on Tuesday claimed that migrants wanted to impose Sharia in London under its “terrible mayor” during an hour-long speech in which he also railed against Iran, Europe and the UN itself.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is under pressure from MPs to summon the US ambassador over what they call Mr Trump’s “rampant Islamophobia”.
While there has been an enduring acrimony between Mr Khan and Mr Trump, it reached the global stage at the UN General Assembly.
“I look at London where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed. Now they want to go to Sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that,” he said.
Mr Khan was quick to respond, telling Sky News on Wednesday that “President Trump has shown he is racist, he is sexist, he is misogynistic and he's Islamophobic”.
While the US is “a best friend” to Britain, he added, that should also mean “you've got the confidence to call them out when they're wrong, and I think President Trump is wrong in many, many ways”.
Mr Trump’s disparaging comments about the UK capital were made just five days after his unprecedented second state visit. However, he barely set foot in London, spending his first night at the ambassador’s residence overlooking Regents Park before travelling to Windsor Castle and the Prime Minister’s country residence, Chequers.
But the goodwill on show during the trip appears to have been forgotten, raising questions over Mr Starmer’s policy to placate Mr Trump rather than standing up to him.
Labour MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan demanded that US ambassador Warren Stephens, a close Trump ally, be “should be summoned and challenged over Trump’s rampant Islamophobia”.
“Trump continually spreads lies,” she said. “In London, we celebrate our diversity and reject racists and bigots.”
UK Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said he completely disagrees with Mr Trump's remarks about London.
“We don’t have Sharia law, we have British law,” he told the BBC, accusing Mr Trump of a “misreading of our great capital city”.
Other London MPs were equally critical. “Blatant barefaced lies as any fact-check or reality check will attest,” wrote Rupa Huq on social media.
Dawn Butler told Mr Starmer that “now is the time to stick up for your country, don’t let Trump lie about us in this way”.
Earlier, Emily Thornberry, chairwoman of the foreign affairs committee, had voiced support for Mr Khan, saying that people who suggest London had Sharia were “deluded or have a [very] sinister agenda”.
The rift between Mr Trump and Mr Khan stems back more than a decade when, during the Republican's first presidential campaign in 2015, the London Mayor criticised his proposed ban on Muslims travelling to the US.
Since Mr Trump won re-election last year, a record number of Americans have applied for British citizenship, including almost 2,200 applying in the three months to June – a 50 per cent increase year on year, according to Mr Khan's office.
Mr Starmer will hope that Mr Trump’s words will be quietly lost in the news cycle. But with the Labour Party conference scheduled for the weekend, the issue may not retreat in time.
During a meeting in Scotland in July, Mr Starmer was forced to dismiss Mr Trump's attacks against Mr Khan directly. “He's a friend of mine, actually,” the Prime Minister said of the London Mayor.
Downing Street told The National on Wednesday that it did not want to comment further on the issue.
