Sadiq Khan urges Labour to ‘call out Trump’ on sexism and racism

Labour should do more to “call out” Donald Trump for racism and sexism, Sadiq Khan has suggested.

Mr Khan, who recently won a third term as the Mayor of London, broke with his party’s attempts to woo the former president before this year’s US election by calling for Labour to criticise Mr Trump.

David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, has launched a charm offensive on the presumptive Republican nominee, praising him for raising defence spending during his first term and suggesting the two men have “common ground”.

On a trip to Washington last week, Mr Lammy met with Chris LaCivita, Mr Trump’s campaign manager, and several of his allies on Capitol Hill.

On Thursday, Mr Khan said he was “worried” about the prospect of a second Trump presidency, and suggested the party should criticise him for his views on minority groups.

Referring to Mr Lammy’s comment last week that Mr Trump was “misunderstood” in Europe, the mayor told Politico: “I’m quite clear I understand Trump.

Special relationship

“He’s a racist. He’s a sexist. He’s a homophobe. And it’s very important, particularly when you’ve got a special relationship, that you treat them as a best mate.

“If my best mate was a racist, or a sexist or a homophobe, I’d call him out and I’d explain to him why those views are wrong.”

He added that he had “more latitude” as a mayor to criticise Mr Trump.

“I worry about a Donald Trump presidency,” he said. “I’ve been speaking to governors from America. I’ve been speaking to mayors from America.

“Of course we’ll have a relationship, whoever the president is. But we shouldn’t be literally rolling out a red carpet for a state visit.

“It’s really important that we, of course, have good relations with Democrats and Republicans.

“But I lost count of the amount of Republicans I’ve spoken to who are also worried about a Trump presidency.”

Mr Khan and Mr Trump have previously criticised each other. Before Mr Trump’s last visit to London, he took to Twitter to call Mr Khan a “stone cold loser” and “very dumb”, after the mayor authorised protesters to erect a large balloon effigy of the Republican leader depicted as a baby.

In 2016, Mr Khan said Mr Trump’s comments about Muslims were “ignorant”. In return, the American challenged the mayor to an IQ test.