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

London mayor Sadiq Khan has labelled former US president Donald Trump racist, sexist and homophobic – and warned that Labour must do more to “call him out”.

With Mr Trump challenging for the US presidency once again, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy suggested during a bridge-building trip with Republicans in Washington last week that their presidential candidate in the upcoming elections was “often misunderstood” on European policy.

But speaking after being re-elected for a third term as London’s mayor, Mr Khan insisted Mr Trump was far from misunderstood.

“I’m quite clear, I understand on Trump,” Mr Khan told Politico. “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.”

The two have traded barbs since 2019, when Mr Trump labelled Mr Khan a “stone cold loser” who had done a “terrible job” as mayor during a presidential visit to London, prompting warnings from experts that these attacks acted as a “nod and a wink” to Mr Trump’s extremist supporters.

Those remarks came after Mr Khan’s office gave activists permission to fly a blimp of the then-president as a crying baby during a protest in 2018. Mr Trump claimed the following year that Mr Khan had “done a very bad job on terrorism”, and just this month insisted that both London and Paris were “unrecognisable” because Europe had “opened its doors to jihad”.

Days earlier, the London mayor had taunted Mr Trump as he addressed crowds during Eid celebrations in Trafalgar Square, saying he was going to send his “good friend” Mr