UK government ministers have been robustly defending London Mayor Sadiq Khan after he was described by US President Donald Trump as a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”.
Mr Trump's remarks about the UK capital's first Muslim leader were made in an interview with Politico. Mr Trump accused him of “doing a terrible job” and turning the UK capital into “a different place”.
Responding to a question from The National about the comments, the press secretary for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said “those comments are wrong”.
She added that Mr Khan was “doing an excellent job” and that the “Prime Minister is hugely proud” of what he has achieved for London. Mr Starmer also said in a statement: “I'm proud to call him a colleague and a friend.”
Mr Khan has also been strongly supported by other Labour Party colleagues as senior figures took issue with Mr Trump's latest attack on the city leader.
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy stoutly defended Mr Khan. “I strongly disagree with those comments” she said, adding that her Labour colleague was “doing a really good job”.
Just hours after she returned to the UK from a visit to Washington, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper also defended Mr Khan without referring to Mr Trump. “When it comes to the Mayor of London, you will not be surprised that I, of course, take a strongly different view,” she said.
Mr Trump suggested in the interview that Mr Khan had been elected on the back of migrant voters and that immigration had “destroyed” the UK capital.
Mr Trump's comments on European leaders as "weak" and the continent as "decaying" have be described as an attempt to "break apart" the trans-Atlantic relationship by Pope Leo XIV. The American born pontiff also told Politico that Europe's role in brokering peace in Ukraine was very important and it needed to be part of the settlement of the war.
One Labour backbench MP told The National he thought the comments were “grim, bordering on Islamophobic” and questioned “Trump’s unhealthy obsession with insulting Sadiq”.
Mr Khan responded in his own interview with Politico, saying he thought Mr Trump was “obsessed” with insulting him.
“I think the one part that President Trump has got right is that London is becoming a different place,” he said. “We are the greatest city in the world.
“I suspect that’s one of the reasons why we have record numbers of Americans coming here to holiday, coming here to live, coming here to invest, or coming here to study.”
In a sign of the delicate diplomatic tightrope Mr Starmer is trying to walk, his spokesperson added: “The Prime Minister has a strong relationship with the US President and the Mayor of London. It’s a strong relationship which has produced strong results on security and trade co-operation.”
Mr Trump’s tirade follows the White House publication of its National Security Strategy, which suggested that European nations are threatened with “civilisational erasure” and would be “unrecognisable” in the next 20 years due to mass migration.
Europe's hard-right governments were praised, while those in the centre were criticised and the document also states that Russia is no longer a direct enemy.
The US leader spoke by phone on Wednesday to Mr Starmer plus French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Three documents are being discussed between the countries. One is an overall framework to end the war, the second concerns security guarantees for Kyiv and the third focuses on Ukraine’s reconstruction.
After meeting with the three Europeans on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the main sticking points remained over territory and security guarantees.
