Sadiq Khan calls for Donald Trump UK state visit to be cancelled

London mayor urges UK 'should not roll out the red carpet' for US President after Mr Trump's Twitter attack on his response to terrorist atrocity

Sadiq Khan has said the UK should not “roll out the red carpet” for Donald Trump after the US President relaunched his attack on the London mayor's response to the city's terrorist atrocity.

Mr Trump reignited his feud with Mr Khan on Monday, just hours after wrongly claiming the mayor had said there was “no reason to be alarmed” about the risk of terror attacks in London.

Speaking to Channel 4 News from the vigil held on Monday night for the victims of the attack two days earlier, Mr Khan said he did not think the US President should be welcomed to Britain for a state visit, saying he “goes against everything we stand for”.

When asked by Channel 4’s Cathy Newman what he thinks Mr Trump has against him, Mr Khan replied: “Well look, since Saturday I’ve been working with the police, the emergency and the Government with others to deal with the horrific attack.

“I just haven’t got the time to respond to tweets from Donald Trump.”

When then asked whether he would like the state visit to be cancelled, Mr Khan said: “I don’t think we should be rolling out the red carpet to the President of the USA in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for.

“When you have a close relationship it’s no different from when you have a close mate. You stand with them in times of adversity, but you call them out when their wrong. And there are many things about which Donald Trump is wrong.”

It comes as Theresa May faced calls to scrap Mr Trump’s visit to Britain following the US President’s latest attack on Mr Khan, accused by Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron of being a “supine leader” and urged by Labour MP David Lammy to "show some bottle".

Earlier, the Prime Minister three times refused to directly criticise Mr Trump’s comments about the Mayor of London when questioned by journalists on the campaign trail, ducking the questions twice before eventually saying: “I think Sadiq Khan is doing a good job and it’s wrong to say anything else.”

On Saturday, within hours of the London Bridge murders, the US President tweeted: “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is “no reason to be alarmed!”

In fact, Mr Khan had said: “My message to Londoners and visitors to our great city is to be calm and vigilant today. You will see an increased police presence today, including armed officers and uniformed officers. There is no reason to be alarmed by this.”

On Monday morning, Mr Trump published a new tweet saying: “Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his 'no reason to be alarmed' statement. MSM is working hard to sell it.”

In a sign of contempt for the US President across America, Mr Trump's second attack on the London mayor came as every mayor in America sent Mr Khan a message of support and solidarity.