Starmer Defends London Mayor Against "Ridiculous" Trump Claims

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has described claims from US President Donald Trump that London wants “to go to Sharia law” as “ridiculous nonsense,” Karl Mercer reported for BBC News.

Trump had told the meeting that the city had a “terrible mayor” and had been “changed.” (Photo: Sadiq Khan Facebook)

Starmer also said he supported Mayor Sadiq Khan following Trump’s statement to the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

Trump had told the meeting that the city had a “terrible mayor” and had been “changed.”

He added: “Now they want to go to Sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that” — remarks that Khan said showed Trump was “racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic.”

Starmer said: “I’m not going to get drawn into a war of words, but what I will say is this, because it is important. You saw from the state visit last week that there are plenty of things on which the president and I agree, and we are working together. There are some issues on which we disagree, and what the president said about the mayor, who’s doing a really good job, in fact driving down serious crime, what he said about the introduction of Sharia law was ridiculous nonsense.”

He added: “I support our mayor. I’m really proud of the fact we have a Muslim mayor of a very diverse city. We do work with the Americans on a huge number of issues. On this issue I disagree, and I stand with our mayor.”