Downing Street has belatedly hit back at comments made by Donald Trump about the Mayor of London, saying the remarks were “wrong”.
The US president used an interview with Politico on Tuesday to hit out at Sir Sadiq Khan, who he called a “disgusting mayor”, and implied the Labour politician gets elected only “because so many people have come in”.
Mr Trump told the publication’s podcast, The Conversation: “Look at… your mayor of London. He’s a disaster. 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.”
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Mr Trump added: “He’s a horrible mayor. 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.”
In a wide-ranging interview, the president also hit out at European leaders for wanting to be “so politically correct”, and warned that Europe is being led by “weak” people who are failing to control immigration.
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Downing Street initially declined to criticise Mr Trump’s comments on Tuesday, insisting that Sir Keir Starmer has a “strong relationship” both with the US president and with Labour mayor, Sir Sadiq.
The PM also held a planned closed-doors meeting with the US ambassador Warren Stephens on Tuesday.
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But, in an apparent about-turn, the prime minister’s spokesperson openly criticised Mr Trump’s comments on Wednesday, saying that Sir Keir has “made clear” that they were “wrong”.
They added: “The mayor is doing an excellent job. The PM is hugely proud of the mayor’s record, and he’s proud to call him a colleague and a friend.”
Pushed again on Mr Trump’s comments, the spokesperson pointed back to Sir Keir’s comments to the US president following his state visit to the UK in September.
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Speaking to the UN General Assembly that month, Mr Trump attacked both Sir Sadiq – he called him “a terrible mayor” – and London, which he said wants “to go to Sharia law”.
The mayor responded by branding Mr Trump as “racist, sexist, misogynistic” and “Islamophobic”, adding that he was “living rent-free” in the president’s head.
Sir Keir later responded to that incident by saying he was “really proud of the fact we have a Muslim mayor of a very diverse city”, and that “on this issue, I disagree” with the US president.
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Mr Trump’s comments about Sir Sadiq are merely the latest insults hurled across the Atlantic in a public spat that dates back to the US president’s first state visit in 2018, when the mayor gave permission to protestors to fly a giant blimp of the president styled as a baby.
Sir Sadiq responded to Mr Trump’s latest comments in his own interview with Politico, where he suggested the US president had become “obsessed” with him.
He also suggested that Americans are “flocking” to live in London – because its values are the “antithesis” of the US.
