Downing Street has pushed back against Donald Trump’s latest verbal assault on Sadiq Khan, after the US president branded the London mayor “disgusting”. A No.10 spokesperson said Prime Minister Keir Starmer is “proud” to call Khan his friend.
Trump reignited his long-standing feud with the mayor on Tuesday, telling POLITICO that Khan was “horrible” and questioning whether he secured election victories because of immigrant voters in the capital. In response, No.10 dismissed the remarks as “wrong.”
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A spokesperson added, “The mayor of London is doing an excellent job delivering free school meals in primary schools, cleaning up London’s air, introducing the world’s largest clean air zone, and building record numbers of council houses. The prime minister is proud of the mayor of London’s record and proud to call him a colleague and friend.”
The spokesperson also pointed back to Starmer’s previous comments from September, when he publicly backed Khan, saying, “I’m very proud of the fact that we have a Muslim mayor of a very diverse city. We do work with the Americans on a huge number of issues, but on this issue, I disagree; I stand with our mayor.”
Trump’s Renewed Criticism of Sadiq Khan’s Leadership
Trump launched his latest attack during a broad critique of Europe, in which he escalated his long-running animosity towards Khan. He said, “He’s an incompetent mayor, but he’s a horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor.
“I think he’s done a terrible job. London’s a different place. I love London. I love London. And I hate to see it happen. He’s a disaster. He’s got a totally different ideology of what he’s supposed to have. And he gets elected because so many people have come in. They vote for him now.”
Khan later told POLITICO that he believed the president was “obsessed” with him, adding that many Americans are coming to London because the capital’s liberal values are the “antithesis” of Trump’s.
Downing Street Stresses Strong US–UK Relations
Despite the escalating rhetoric, No.10 played down the spat when questioned on Tuesday. The prime minister’s official spokesperson said, “I would refer to the strength of the relationship between the prime minister and the president.
“It’s a strong relationship which has produced strong results on security and trade co-operation. The prime minister has a strong relationship with the US president and the mayor of London.”
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