Sadiq Khan: London mayor says President Trump ‘absolutely’ welcome to visit UK in major U-turn

Published

7 months ago

February 18, 2025

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London’s mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has defended his past attacks on Donald Trump, telling Sky News that standing up for the city “does mean sometimes saying boo to a goose”.

But in a major U-turn since calling on the government to ban the US president’s 2019 UK state visit, when he was asked if Mr Trump would be welcome this time, he declared: “Absolutely!”

Sir Sadiq, who was knighted in the King’s New Year’s Honours, was interviewed by Sky News as he hosted talks with the ambassadors of the European Union‘s 27 member states at a top London hotel.

In the past, the mayor has denounced the president as “ignorant” on Islam, “racist”, “sexist”, “a homophobe” and likened his tactics to “the fascists of the 20th century”.

Asked if he still held those views, he said: “President Trump has fairly and squarely won a second term. Let’s judge President Trump on what he does to his second term rather than what he did in his first term.

“My job as the mayor of this great city is to stand up for our values, stand up for our businesses, stand up for our people. And that does mean sometimes saying boo to a goose.”

And Sir Sadiq did criticise new US vice president JD Vance for claiming in a Valentine’s Day speech at the Munich Security Conference that free speech was in retreat in the UK and Europe.

“We had a situation a couple of days ago where it was said in words to the effect that the biggest threat facing our country and our continent is a lack of freedom of speech,” said the mayor.

“Woe betide me being criticised for exercising my freedom of speech. Contrary to what JD Vance might think, we have freedom of speech in this country.”

Sir Sadiq was also critical of the president’s threat of “trade wars and tariffs”, suggesting they could damage American companies doing business in London and the UK.

“London is the number one city of choice for foreign direct investment for many businesses across the globe,” he said.

“We’ve got many great American companies invested in London, whether it’s in culture – Netflix and many other studios have opened recently in this great city of ours – financial institutions, legal and others currently invested in London.

“We do great business with the USA in terms of services and goods. I want it to carry on. An issue with tariffs and trade wars is that there are more people who lose out from those than win from those.”

On another Trump state visit, which the president is known to want, the mayor said: “I’d like President Trump to come to London so he can see some of the misunderstandings he has of our city.

“So he can see there is no threat to freedom of speech in this great city of ours. So he can see that actually Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus and Sikhs don’t just tolerate each other, we respect, celebrate and embrace each other.

“So he can see for himself the fact that diversity is a strength, not a weakness. He can see for himself that many people in this great city of ours and country of ours love America, love American culture, indeed in the past have loved American politics and are looking forward to working closely with him going forward.”

Sir Sadiq also appeared to strike a less hostile tone in his opposition to Heathrow expansion, after previously threatening a legal challenge against a third runway.

“I’m a pro-growth mayor,” he said. “I’m a pro-business mayor, as evidenced by the policies of the last eight years. I want a better Heathrow, not a bigger Heathrow.

“If Heathrow can come up with plans that address issues around noise, around air, around climate change, that pays for the underground M25, re-routing the A4, improvements to Southern Rail, improvements on the Piccadilly line, improvements on the Elizabeth line, we’ll look at them.

“Let’s see what Heathrow’s plans are. What the Climate Change Committee – well respected – has said [is] that any expansion of aviation must abide with our climate change commitments. Let’s wait and see what Heathrow come up with.”

Denying this was a change in his position, he added: “Not at all. I’m quite clear in relation to standing up for London, but also standing up for our environment, for air quality, for noise pollution and for Londoners.

“And it’s really important to wait for Heathrow to have their plans before I launch a legal challenge against hypotheticals.”

Politics

Investigation launched into ex-Reform MP over ‘racial abuse’ against Sky News journalist

Published

7 mins ago

September 16, 2025

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Investigation launched into ex-Reform MP over 'racial abuse' against Sky News journalist

An investigation has been launched into a former Reform MP over alleged racial abuse against a Sky News journalist.

The parliamentary standards commissioner is investigating James McMurdock, who was elected as a Reform MP last year but suspended himself after allegations emerged over loans he claimed during the pandemic.

Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative MP, wrote to the watchdog in August to urge an investigation into Mr McMurdock’s “use of social media to apparently facilitate racial abuse” against Sky News political correspondent Mhari Aurora.

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The standards commissioner has now confirmed it will consider allegations that Mr McMurdock started an “N-Tower” on social media by posting the single letter “N” under an X post that was critical of Aurora.

This was described by Mr Obese-Jecty as “a means of using a racial slur against an individual on an online platform whilst circumventing moderation that would remove racially abusive content”.

He added: “The practice involves spelling out a racial slur vertically with each individual posting a single letter of the word in order to spell it vertically” as the posts appear below each other.

Mr McMurdock is under investigation for potentially breaching rule 11 of the House of Commons Code of Conduct.

This states: “Members shall never undertake any action which would cause significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole, or of its Members generally.”

Mr Obese-Jecty said in his complaint that the alleged actions of the former Reform MP “reflect a lack of adherence” to the seven principles of public life.

He said by “deleting the post without challenging the subsequent spelling” that was started by him, Mr McMurdock showed a “failure to challenge poor behaviour” and “absence of moral courage”.

Mr Obese-Jecty added: “Having repeatedly experienced this specific type of online racial abuse myself I am horrified that a fellow member of parliament would apparently see this as a legitimate means of challenging a Westminster lobby journalist in a public forum.

“I sincerely hope that there is a coherent and believable explanation for this horrendous action.”

At the time, Mr McMurdock appeared to deny he made the post, sharing a screenshot of X’s AI assistant Grok claiming he never posted the letter N, based on a screenshot of the N-Tower.

Grok is a large language model, which is known to be inaccurate.

He added that Mr Obese-Jecty’s “complaint regarding the alleged posting of a single letter is beyond ridiculous”.

Mr McMurdock has been contacted for comment.

Politics

Former Tory minister Maria Caulfield defects to Reform UK

Published

7 mins ago

September 16, 2025

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Former Tory minister Maria Caulfield defects to Reform UK

Another former Conservative MP has defected to Reform UK.

Maria Caulfield, who served as the MP for Lewes for nearly a decade, as well as a government minister, is the 13th ex-Tory to join Nigel Farage’s party, which continues to gather momentum.

The announcement of her move on Tuesday follows sitting MP Danny Kruger’s decision to defect yesterday and head up Reform’s work to prepare for government.

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Ms Caulfield, a former health minister, told GB News: “If you are Conservative right-minded, then the future is Reform. The country is going to change a lot.

“The same people who thought that Brexit would not happen think that Reform will not happen. They are in for a shock.”

She added: “I have joined. My husband joined a few months ago and I joined a month ago.”

Reacting to the defection, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch admitted her party is having a “tough and bumpy time”, but reiterated her argument that it takes time to develop policies, and called on the public and her party to be patient.

Ms Caulfield is a former nurse, and her first ministerial job came in 2021, when she joined the Department for Health in Boris Johnson’s government.

After a spell on the backbenches during the brief premiership of Liz Truss, she was brought back into government under Rishi Sunak, becoming the minister responsible for mental health and women’s health.

She lost her seat at the 2024 general election to the Liberal Democrats, with her vote share having plummeted by nearly 22%.

‘We need to hold our nerve’

Her announcement follows that of Danny Kruger, the MP for East Wiltshire, who announced his move at a press conference alongside Nigel Farage on Monday.

He said the Conservative Party is “over”, and Reform is now the primary vehicle for conservatism.

But shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said his analysis was “profoundly wrong”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It is certainly the case that we had a devastating defeat about a year ago, that we lost that connection with the electorate, that trust with the electorate, and it is also true that it will take us time to rebuild that.”

He added: “We need to hold our nerve.”