Over the weekend Sadiq Khan got a lot of attention for equating Trump’s election to the return of fascism:
“We should be in no doubt, this is a perilous moment. The spectre of a resurgent fascism haunts the West … To ward off the far-right, we must be unflinching in defence of our democracy and values, and in our determination to enhance the welfare and material conditions of our communities.”
Much like the London Mayor’s previous tired guff when it comes to the soon-to-be president. The government slapped Khan down on Sunday for the obviously unhelpful comments…
Now less than 48 hours after Khan’s origial Observer article came out, he is briefing in somewhat of a different tone:
“Sir Sadiq said as somebody ‘who believes in democracy, and voting and elections, we should recognise the fact that Donald Trump is the elected President of the United States’. And he insisted he now ‘wanted to work closely with the American President’. But he added: ‘Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this president is different from the last time he was president.'”
That’s as close to a climbdown on Trump as anyone can get out of Khan. How hard did Labour have to twist his arm to get this out?
City Hall’s standards commissioner has said that Khan is under investigation over October’s Taylor Swift controversy. A GLA spokesman says: “The monitoring officer has reviewed the complaint against the mayor and will not be investigating three of the four allegations. An investigation will now take place to establish if the mayor exercised an appropriate level of caution in deciding to accept the tickets.” Susan Hall initiated proceedings by making a formal complaint after details were revealed in the press…
Khan took free tickets for an August Swift concert and later altered the declaration of their value. The three allegations referred to there relate to a late declaration of the tickets, the factual errors in the initial declaration, and whether there was a live contract with agency LS Events (who supplied them). Khan’s spokesman says “the mayor’s office will continue to ensure all the right processes are followed, and looks forward to explaining the approach that was taken in this instance.” Freebies may not worth it for all the blowback…
Sadiq Khan is finally “putting out the hand of friendship” to Donald Trump nearly ten days on from his election win – having first claimed many Londoners would be “fearful” after around 75 million Americans voted for him. Speaking through gritted teeth to LBC’s Chief Bore James O’Brien, the Mayor of London insisted he would generously give Trump “the benefit of the doubt“. Trump must be grateful…
“…Clearly, we know from his record when he was President between 2016 and 2020 and also some of the things he’s campaigned on, there are anxieties that Londoners have, which my job as the Mayor is to articulate those… I think the three things that even Donald Trump’s supporters would agree with is his policies are protectionist, nativist, and unilateralist…
Now JD Vance, Elon Musk and others may have changed their mind about Trump, I haven’t but I’m giving the President-elect the benefit of the doubt and let’s hope, fingers crossed, this President, during this term, is different from the last one…”
In fairness to Sadiq, he’s hardly the only one in Labour who’s had to eat humble pie since last Tuesday…
London Mayor Sadiq Khan clearly didn’t get the memo from Keir Starmer about supporting and working with the next U.S. President. Instead, Khan rushed to issue a moaning statement on Trump’s win, bleating about how “fearful” Londoners supposedly feel about what the result means for democracy and women’s rights. Khan wailed:
“I know that many Londoners will be anxious about the outcome of the US Presidential election. Many will be fearful about what it will mean for democracy and for women’s rights, or how the result impacts the situation in the Middle East or the fate of Ukraine. Others will be worried about the future of NATO or tackling the climate crisis…The lesson of today is that progress is not inevitable. But asserting our progressive values is more important than ever – re-committing to building a world where racism and hatred is rejected, the fundamental rights of women and girls are upheld, and where we continue to tackle the crisis of climate change head on.”
Leader of City Hall Conservatives Neil Garratt was quick to slam Khan’s insulting statement:
“It’s important to recognise the legitimate winner of a free and fair election, and the peaceful handover of power. These are not things everyone in the world can take for granted, we should not attempt to undermine them.The fact remains that the Mayor’s job is to focus on delivering for London…Londoners will see through him trying to use the American election as a ruse to distract from his own failures in office, including his failure to negotiate a good deal for London with his own Labour government.”
Latest on Labour’s contribution to the “special relationship” as we get it…
Co-conspirators may remember Sadiq Khan’s vanity jolly last month to New York with the C40 Cities “Climate Leadership Group.” Khan claims he went to promote “London as a leading destination for business, tourism and sport.” He actually went on a boat ride to talk about voles…
Guido fired a few FOIs City Hall’s way to see how much the taxpayer was paying this time round. The GLA spent £3,683 on flights to New York for some of Khan’s retinue of a whopping eight people. Once they landed they managed to rack up a £9,060 bill on hotel rooms, which the GLA claims “is reflective of the very high demand for hotel rooms in New York when the UN General Assembly is in session.” You can feel the British public’s sympathy pouring out as we speak…
Khan and his crew were spread across three different hotels. Guido leaves it to co-conspirators to guess which the Mayor stayed in…
Above is the NH Collection on Madison Avenue. Prices range from $400 to $1,800 a night..
The Hilton Garden Inn by Central Park. Prices from $500 per night upwards…
The Aura Hotel on Times Square. From about $335 per night…
Khan’s hotel rooms, as well as his business class flight tickets, were paid for by the C40 Cities group, of which Khan is a co-chairman. That’s the same organisation of whose main proposal is to limit the public’s air travel to “one short-haul return flight (less than 1500 km) every 2 years per person.” Khan’s already exceeded his two-year quota by 3.7 times with his free 5,570km flight to the Big Apple. Poor Sadiq will have to sit in London until 2032 to compensate…
The Sphere venue has found a new home since London Mayor Sadiq Khan unceremoniously blocked plans for it to be built in London. It will now be built in the United Arab Emirates, bringing $2.3 billion of foreign direct investment to the Middle East that could have gone to London. This comes just days after Labour’s so-called ‘Investment’ Summit. Did Khan not get the memo…
Climate crusader Khan rejected the glowing ball because it would cause too much “light pollution” and had a lack of other green credentials. Despite the fact the venue could have boosted the capital’s economy by £2.5 billion, brought in £50 million a year to local businesses and created 1,200 jobs. After Khan gave Sphere Entertainment the cold shoulder, the company said it would instead concentrate on the “many forward-thinking cities that are eager to bring this technology to their communities”. And they have…
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”
