London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Boris Johnson’s government is too “sycophantic” toward the Trump administration and that the U.K. needs to make clear it doesn’t share the U.S. president’s values.
“One of the things that concerns me is we are so obsessed with trying to please America that we act in a sycophantic way,” Mr. Khan, who is up for reelection in May, told Business Insider in an interview published Monday.
“What we should be doing is saying ’you know what, your views on women I don’t agree with, your views on immigrants and Mexicans I don’t agree with, your views on Muslims I don’t agree with, your views on the LGBT+ community I don’t agree with,” he continued. “We need to be honest and say these aren’t the values that we are about.”
The U.K. should be more willing to “say boo to a goose and be honest,” he added. “In life generally, you often work with people you may not necessarily love and adore, but it’s about having a good and constructive relationship. That’s what we’ll need to do with the US and others.”
Mr. Khan made the comments Saturday in central London while discussing the Labour Party’s future leadership following Jeremy Corbyn’s defeat in December.
The first-term mayor, who became the first Muslim to be elected to the position, has had an ongoing public feud with President Trump ever since he criticized the president’s proposed travel ban again Muslim-majority countries in 2016. Mr. Trump has called Mr. Khan “ignorant” and a “stone-cold loser,” and the mayor has called the president “ill-informed” and a “poster boy for the far right.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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