Starmer Hits Back At Trump’s Attack On ‘Disgusting’ Sadiq Khan

Downing Street has hit back at Donald Trump’s attacks on “disgusting” Sadiq Khan, saying Keir Starmer is proud to call the mayor his “friend”.

The US president reignited his long-running feud with the London mayor on Tuesday, telling POLITICO he was “horrible” and suggesting he only won because immigrants to the capital voted for him.

On Wednesday, a No.10 spokesperson hit back at the president’s remarks, saying: “Those comments are wrong.

“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 prime minister’s press secretary also referred back to Starmer’s comments from September when he made it clear he supports Khan.

He said at the time: “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 chose to attack Khan during a rambling attack on Europe.

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 believes the president is “obsessed” with him and claimed Americans are flocking to London because its liberal values are the “antithesis” of Trump’s.

On Tuesday, the prime minister’s official spokesperson dodged questions about the spat, telling reporters in Downing Street: “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.”