Donald Trump is a homophobe, sexist, and racist declared far-left Mayor of London Sadiq Khan while urging his party to do more to “call him out”.
The “special relationship” between the United Kingdom and the United States may be in store for choppy waters as polls suggest former President Donald Trump is set to return to the White House and the left-wing Labour Party is widely projected to take power in Westminster as the two countries head towards general elections later this year.
While senior Labour figures appear to softening their stance towards Trump given the necessity for London to cooperate closely with Washington, leftist London Mayor Sadiq Khan is attempting to shame the party into openly criticising the current frontrunner in the U.S. presidential election.
Echoing Hillary Clinton’s infamous ‘basket of deplorables’ speech, Khan told the POLITICO website: “I’m quite clear, I understand on Trump… 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.”
Khan, who, despite overseeing rampant crime in Britain’s capital city, won a record third term in office earlier this month, went on to say that he is “worried” about another Trump presidency.
“You know, 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,” he said.
“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.”
The leftist mayor has long been at odds with Trump, with Khan demanding that then-President Trump be barred from having a state visit and meeting Queen Elizabeth II in 2017. Khan justified his opposition to the American leader by claiming that Trump used “xenophobia, racism, and ‘otherness’ as an electoral tactic” while claiming that he only cared about “White America”, and that Trump’s election slogan of America First actually meant “White America First”.
For his part, President Trump branded Khan as a “stone-cold loser” for failing to tackle knife crime and terrorism in London. Mr Trump reiterated his criticisms of the management of London’s governance, saying earlier this month that mass migration has seen the British capital become “no longer recognisable”.
The latest comments from Khan come as his left-wing Labour Party is widely projected to win at the next general election, having a double-digit lead over the governing Conservative Party in nearly every poll. Likewise, Mr Trump is consistently polling ahead of incumbent Democrat President Joe Biden ahead of November’s presidential election in the United States.
While President Trump was openly pro-British and a strong backer of a post-Brexit trade deal between America and Britain, a combination of the ineptitude of Boris Johnson’s Tory government and the Chinese coronavirus prevented a deal from being struck before Trump left office. Conversely, anti-Brexit President Biden has refused to even entertain trade talks with the UK, forcing London to strike deals with individual states in America over the past four years.
Thus, should the polling prove accurate, the Labour Party could be forced to negotiate with Trump following the two elections for a new trade deal with Britain’s top trading partner. Therefore, it is unsurprising that figures such as Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy — a previous critic of Trump’s — have appeared to offer an olive branch to the presidential frontrunner, saying that Mr Trump has been “misunderstood”.
Longtime Trump ally and leader of the Brexit movement, Nigel Farage, has offered to serve as an ambassador to Washington if the Labour Party and Mr Trump take power to help facilitate a trade deal between the two countries, however, there appears little interest within the left-wing party to draft the populist campaigner.