US President Donald Trump once again criticised London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Saturday, saying he is a “disaster” and will “only get worse” after three people were slain in the city in less than 20 hours.
Trump retweeted a tweet by the right-wing commentator Katie Hopkins who called London “stab city” and said “this is Khan’s Londonistan,” a phrase used to describe the city’s failure to tackle Muslim extremists.
“LONDON needs a new mayor ASAP. Khan is a disaster – will only get worse!” Trump said on Twitter.
“He is a national disgrace who is destroying the city of London,” a follow-up message read.
Trump called Khan, a Muslim of Pakistani heritage, a “stone-cold loser” earlier this month after the mayor criticized the British government for inviting Trump for a state visit and compared him to 20th century fascists.
Khan’s spokesperson said the London Mayor’s thoughts were with the victims’ families and he “is not going to waste his time responding to this sort of tweet”.
“Violent crime has no place in our city, and there’s no higher priority for me than Londoners’ safety,” Khan said on Twitter.
Trump’s feud with Khan dates back several years. Khan has criticised Trump’s effort to ban travellers from Muslim countries, while the president has castigated the mayor for his handling of a 2017 terrorist attack on the London bridge that killed 11 people.
Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked the US President’s latest outburst, saying it was “absolutely awful to see Donald Trump using the tragedy of people being murdered to attack the Mayor”.
He tweeted: “Sadiq Khan is rightly supporting the police to do their job while Katie Hopkins spreads hateful and divisive rhetoric. They seek to divide at a time we need to come together.”
The Metropolitan Police said 14 people – including several boys and a girl – have been arrested in connection with the incidents of stabbing and shooting in Wandsworth, Plumstead and Clapham areas of London.
An 18-year-old man was stabbed to death on Friday afternoon in Wandsworth, south London, then minutes later a 19-year-old man was shot dead in Plumstead, south-east London.
A man in his 30s then died after he was stabbed in Tower Hamlets, east London, on Saturday afternoon. In the early hours of Saturday, two men were stabbed in Clapham and another was stabbed in Brixton.
“Sadiq is focusing on supporting London’s communities and over-stretched emergency services. He has been in regular touch with senior Met police officers last night and throughout the day,” said a spokesperson for the London Mayor.
The deaths over the past few days take the total number of murders in London in 2019 to 56.
