Sadiq Khan brands Donald Tump a 'poster boy for racists' as feud reignites amid London stabbings

James Morris17 June 2019
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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has branded Donald Trump a "poster boy for racists" after their feud reignited amid a spate of stabbings in London.

The US president dubbed Mr Khan a "disaster" on Twitter when retweeting a post from far-right activist Katie Hopkins about the capital's violent crime epidemic. He also called him a "national disgrace who is destroying the city of London".

The original post by Ms Hopkins called the capital "Stab-City" and "Khan's Londonistan" alongside two screenshots of articles detailing the violence.

Speaking in central London on Monday, Mr Khan responded: "It's for Donald Trump to explain his tweets, not for me, but it's remarkable that you've got the president of the USA amplifying the tweets of a far-right activist, amplifying a racist tweet.

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"That's one of my concerns about Donald Trump: he's now seen as a poster boy for racists around the world, whether you're a racist in this country, whether you're a racist in Hungary, a racist in Italy, or a racist in France.

"He's now a poster boy for the far-right movement and that should cause us huge concern."

Mr Khan went on: "It's for Donald Trump to answer the question why he's obsessed with me, it's for Donald Trump to answer the question why he amplifies the tweets of far-right activists, why he amplifies racist tweets.

"I'm quite clear, there are many cities across this country facing a huge issue of the increase in violent crime, they've been doing so since 2014.

"There are many good leaders in America facing massive increases in violent crime, they have my support to make sure we learn lessons from each other and that we work together to grapple the issue of violent crime taking place in many cities across the Western world."

Mr Khan made similar comments earlier this month, during Mr Trump's controversial state visit to the UK, when he called Mr Trump the “poster boy for the far-right movement around the world”.

Mr Trump had branded the mayor a "stone cold loser" in a two-part tweet as he touched down.

Additional reporting by Press Association.

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