No.10 Refuses To Criticise Trump After He Slams Europe And ‘Disgusting’ Sadiq Khan

Downing Street has refused to criticise Donald Trump after he claimed Europe is “decaying” and branded Sadiq Khan “disgusting”.

A spokesman for prime minister Keir Starmer repeatedly avoided giving a straight answer when grilled by journalists.

Trump launched a brutal attack on his supposed European allies in an interview with the POLITICO website.

He took aim at their reluctance to accept his peace plan to end the Ukraine war, and said they “will not be viable countries any longer” unless they limit immigration.

Trump said: “I know the good leaders. I know the bad leaders. I know the smart ones. I know the stupid ones. You get some real stupid ones, too.

“But, uh, they’re not doing a good job. Europe is not doing a good job in many ways. They’re not doing a good job.”

He added: “Most European nations, they’re decaying. They’re decaying.”

The president then rejected the suggestion that some leaders would be a “little freaked out” by his comments.

He said: “They should be freaked out by what they’re doing to their countries. They’re destroying their countries.”

“For some reason, they want to be politically correct,” the president claimed. “Which actually, I think is the opposite of politically correct. But they want to be politically correct, and they don’t want to send ’em back to where they came from.”

Trump also reignited his long-running feud with Khan, describing him as “a horrible mayor” of London and suggesting he only won because immigrants vote for him.

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.”

But despite the tirade against his continent, and his Labour colleague, Starmer’s spokesman refused to criticise the president.

On his criticisms of Sadiq Khan, he 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.”

Asked about whether he agreed that Europe – including the UK – is decaying, the spokesman said: “As was set out in the manifesto, what the British people voted for was change and the reason for that was that because across public services they saw NHS waiting lists at record highs, they saw schools and hospitals that were physically crumbling, they saw stagnant growth and the need to tackle the cost of living.”

He added: “The US is our closest partner on trade and security. You’ve seen the strengths of that relationship with the positive outcomes that it’s had for the British people.

“What we’re focused on is improving lives for working people right across the country, delivering economic growth, investing in public services, bringing down debt and providing stability for households and businesses.”