London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s workplace referred to as President Trump’s feedback “bigoted,” after the president appeared to make the false declare that London desires to “go to sharia regulation” and was a metropolis that had “modified” underneath the mayor’s management.
“I’ve to say, I have a look at London the place you have got a horrible mayor — horrible horrible mayor — and it has been so modified, so modified,” Mr. Trump stated throughout his handle to world leaders on the U.N. Common Meeting on Tuesday. “Now they wish to go to sharia regulation … Each their immigration and their suicidal power concepts would be the loss of life of Western Europe.”
Whereas Mr. Trump used the phrase “they” with out clarifying if he meant Khan and London, his feedback echoed lengthy working far-right conspiracy theories on-line linking Khan, who’s the primary Muslim to be elected mayor of London, to Islamic fundamentalism. There isn’t any proof that Khan has advocated for London to formally undertake Sharia, a system of spiritual legal guidelines that’s utilized in some Muslim international locations however not by the U.Okay. authorities.
“We’re not going to dignify his appalling and bigoted feedback with a response,” a spokesperson for London’s mayor advised CBS Information in an e-mailed assertion Tuesday. “London is the best metropolis on the planet, safer than main US cities, and we’re delighted to welcome the file variety of US residents transferring right here.”
CBS Information has reached out to the White Home for remark.
Quite a few politicians in Britain got here to Khan’s protection following Trump’s feedback, together with members of U.Okay. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s authorities. Khan is a member of Starmer’s ruling, left-leaning Labour social gathering.
“Sadiq Khan isn’t attempting to impose Sharia Regulation on London,” U.Okay. Well being Secretary Wes Streeting stated in a put up on X Tuesday. “It is a Mayor who marches with delight, who stands up for variations of background and opinion, who’s centered on enhancing our transport, our air, our streets, our security, our decisions and possibilities.”
Mr. Trump’s remarks — made inside a wider context of criticizing the immigration coverage of European international locations — revived a spat between Khan and the president that stretches again practically a decade.
In 2015, Sadiq Khan roundly condemned then-candidate Donald Trump after he referred to as for a “complete and full shutdown of Muslims coming into the US” on nationwide safety grounds, following a terrorist assault in California. Early in his first time period, Mr. Trump moved to limit journey to the U.S. by residents of a number of principally Muslim international locations, although it didn’t explicitly ban entry to the U.S. by all Muslims.
That preliminary criticism has led to a colourful back-and-forth between the 2 over time. Simply final week, Mr. Trump stated Khan was “among the many worst mayors on the planet,” and advised reporters that he requested that Khan not be current on the banquet hosted by King Charles III throughout the president’s state go to to the U.Okay.
Mr. Trump has additionally typically claimed that crime in London has risen dramatically throughout Khan’s tenure, together with in final week’s feedback to reporters, when he stated crime in London was “via the roof.”
Total recorded crime in London has elevated by 31.5% over the previous 10 years, with violent crime growing by 40%, in response to U.Okay. workplace for Nationwide Statistics knowledge cited by CBS Information’ companions on the BBC. Khan first took workplace as London’s mayor in Might 2016.
However knowledge from the Metropolitan Police exhibits that London had a murder fee of 11.8 per million folks in 2024. That makes the murder fee in England’s capital decrease than in a variety of main U.S. cities, together with Washington, D.C., in response to knowledge cited by the White Home.
