Sadiq Khan calls Trump racist, sexist and Islamophobic

Sir Sadiq Khan has called Donald Trump racist, sexist and Islamophobic after the US president renewed his feud with the London mayor during a speech to the United Nations.

“I think President Trump has shown he is racist, he is sexist, he is misogynistic and he is Islamophobic,” Sir Sadiq told told Sky News.

Asked about Mr Trump’s comments that Sir Sadiq is a “terrible mayor”, he said he was “thankful” that record numbers of Americans are coming to London.

Cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson later declined to repeat Sir Sadiq’s description of Mr Trump.

Another minister had accused Mr Trump of “misreading” London after the US president claimed the city wants to “go to sharia law”.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski praised Sir Sadiq’s response as “exactly what the leader of a diverse and vibrant city like London should say”.

“These words only amplify the silence coming from those in Westminster who seem unable or unwilling to speak out,” he posted on X.

Sir Sadiq had earlier told ITV London when asked if he thought Mr Trump was Islamophobic: “I think when somebody behaves a certain way, when somebody says certain things, when somebody shows you who they are – believe it.”

He added: “I think I’ve got squatters’ rights for the amount of time I’ve spent in Donald Trump’s head. I’m just hoping he doesn’t send me an invoice for all the time I’ve spent there.”

Education Secretary Ms Phillipson said she would not “name call” when asked if Sir Sadiq was right in his description of the US president.

“I understand why Sadiq would feel strongly about that, given the comments made by the president about Sadiq personally, but I’m not going to get into that kind of name-calling,” she told BBC Radio 5 Live.

She backed Sir Sadiq as a “brilliant mayor” with a “powerful story to tell about what he has achieved” in the capital.

But she argued that the UK needs “a relationship with the US president” that is about more than “individuals”.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden had earlier dismissed the president’s attack, and said Mr Trump had had “a beef” with Sir Sadiq for years.

He told BBC Breakfast: “As regards the United Kingdom, on the comments on London, look, I just think it’s a misreading of our great capital city.

“This is a big asset to the United Kingdom. It’s known all over the world, it’s a big engine of our economy, of creativity.”

Speaking to GB News from Crystal Palace’s stadium in south London, he said: “We have British law here at Selhurst Park this morning, no other kind of law, and that’s what applies in our capital city and throughout our country.”

Referring to the president’s long-running dispute with Sir Sadiq, he told Times Radio: “I think the two of them have had a beef for some years.”

Mr Trump’s second state visit to the UK included no public-facing engagements in London, with events with the King in Windsor and the Prime Minister in Chequers rather than Downing Street.

In his speech to the United Nations on Tuesday, Mr Trump said: “I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed.

“Now they want to go to sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.”

He said that “Europe is in serious trouble” because it was being “invaded by a force of illegal aliens”.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said Mr Trump was right to say that sharia law is “an issue in London”.

Speaking during an LBC phone-in, he said: “Never take what he says literally, ever on anything, but always take everything he says seriously.”

But he said Mr Trump “has a point”.

He said: “So is he right to say that sharia is an issue in London? Yes.

“Is it an overwhelming issue at this stage? No.

“Has the mayor of London directly linked himself to it? No.”

He added: “I think what Trump was aiming at with his big pitch that the West (is) going to hell is it’s in danger of losing its culture, its heritage, its identity… Look at Stockholm. Look at parts of Germany. Look at what the mass importation of people who come from very different cultures has done to those cities.”