Sadiq Khan brands Donald Trump 'poster boy for racists'

Sadiq Khan has said Donald Trump is now a ‘poster boy for the far-right and racists’. Credit: PA

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has accused US President Donald Trump of being a “poster boy for racists”.

Mr Trump dubbed Mr Khan a “disaster” on Twitter when retweeting a post from controversial political commentator Katie Hopkins over the weekend, in which she highlighted a spate of killings in the capital.

A teenager was stabbed to death in London on Friday afternoon, while just minutes later another teenager was shot dead.

The next day, a man was stabbed to death in the capital.

Three other people suffered stab wounds over the weekend.

Mr Trump also called the mayor a “national disgrace who is destroying the city of London”.

The original post by Hopkins called the capital “Stab-City” and “Khan’s Londonistan” alongside two screenshots of BBC News articles detailing the violence.

Speaking in central London on Monday, Mr Khan said: “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.

“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.”

Donald Trump dubbed Sadiq Khan a ‘disaster’ and a ‘national disgrace who is destroying the city of London’ Credit: AP

The London Mayor 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.”