Keir Starmer has belatedly defended Sadiq Khan after Donald Trump branded the London mayor “horrible, vicious, disgusting”.
In an attack which reignited his long-running feud with Sir Sadiq, the US president also called him a “disaster” and suggested he has done a “terrible job”.
In an interview with Politico, President Trump said: “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. I love London. I love London. And I hate to see it happen.”
And he claimed of Mr Khan, the city’s first Muslim mayor, whose parents came from Pakistan, “gets elected because so many people have come in [to the UK]. They vote for him now”.
A spokesman for the prime minister described the comments as “wrong” – 24 hours after No 10 failed to defend the mayor.
On Tuesday, Downing Street would only say the PM had a “strong” relationship with both men.
But a day later, the PM’s press secretary told reporters: “Those comments are wrong. The mayor of London is doing an excellent job in London, delivering free school meals in primary schools, cleaning up London’s air with the world’s largest clean air zone and starting record numbers of council houses.
“The prime minister is hugely proud of the mayor of London’s record and proud to call him a colleague and a friend.”
Earlier, Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, hit back at Mr Trump and defended the mayor. She told Sky News: “I strongly disagree with those comments. I think Sadiq is doing a really good job … I’m sure that if you asked the prime minister if he was sitting in this studio today, he would say what I’ve said.”
On Tuesday, Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, said of Mr Trump’s attack: “When it comes to the mayor of London, you will not be surprised that I, of course, take a strongly different view. I think the mayor is doing an excellent job for all of London.”
Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked Sir Sadiq since 2015, when the Labour politician condemned the then presidential hopeful’s suggestion of a Muslim travel ban to the US.
In September, he described Sir Sadiq as one of “the worst mayors in the world” and claimed that London wants to “go to sharia law”.
The London mayor hit back at the president, accusing him of being “racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic”.
In July, Mr Trump targeted Sir Sadiq again, describing him as a “nasty person”, prompting Sir Keir to jump in to defend him.
He told the US president: “He’s a friend of mine, actually.”
