‘Khan Is a Disaster’: Trump Says London ‘Needs New Mayor ASAP’ After Three Killings in 24 Hours

TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he departs the White House, i
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Victoria Friedman

U.S. President Donald J Trump has said that the UK’s capital city “needs a new mayor ASAP” after three killings and three non-fatal stabbings in just 24 hours of Sadiq Khan’s London.

President Trump wrote: “LONDON needs a new mayor ASAP. Khan is a disaster — will only get worse!”

The observation followed the fatal stabbing of a male in his late teens in Wandsworth, south-west London, at 4:42pm on Friday, with police being called to a shooting 15 miles away, just 12 minutes later, in Plumstead, south-east London. The shooting victim, also believed to be a male in his late teens, died of his injuries at the scene at just before 5pm.

On Saturday at 2:37pm, a man in his thirties was fatally stabbed in Tower Hamlets, east London, bringing the death-toll in the 22-hour period to three.

The BBC also reports that in the early hours of Saturday, two men were stabbed in Clapham, south-west London, while another was stabbed in Brixton, south London. All three of those victims survived.

Across all six attacks, police have made 14 arrests. In the case of the fatal stabbing, six arrests were made, all of those detained being males between the ages of 16 and 19. With respect to the fatal shooting, police arrested three boys aged 16 and 17 and a 17-year-old girl on suspicion of murder.

Crime in London has risen under Mayor Khan, though the Labour politician continues to blame spending cuts from central government for his inability to keep Londoners safe and maintain law and order.

This is not the first time that the U.S. President has criticised the left-wing mayor over London’s rising crime, saying shortly before landing in the UK for his State Visit in early June that Khan had done “a terrible job as Mayor of London”, calling him a “stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me”, after the mayor had called the President a “global threat” and said that his visit should be cancelled.

During the State Visit, President Trump had commented on London crime on Good Morning Britain, telling Piers Morgan: “In London you have stabbings all over. I read an article where everybody is being stabbed. They said your hospital is a sea of blood, all over the floors.”

According to a review by the Greater London Assembly Conservatives of police statistics and other figures, under Mayor Khan knife crime has risen by 52 per cent, gun crime by 30 per cent, and homicides by 24 per cent, with the death toll at its highest rate in a decade.

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