Foreign secretary backs Sadiq Khan after US president’s criticism but says visit hosted by the Queen should go ahead

Boris Johnson has said he sees no reason to rescind the invitation to Donald Trump for a state visit, despite the US president’s attacks on the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, after Saturday’s terror attack.

The foreign secretary backed Khan’s call for Londoners not to feel alarmed about the extra presence of police officers on the streets, after Trump misrepresented this as a claim that there was no reason to be alarmed about terrorism in general.

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Johnson said he could not see why an invitation for Trump to be hosted by the Queen later this year should be withdrawn and said he should not interpose himself in a row between the two politicians.

“The invitation has been issued and accepted and I see no reason to change that,” he said. “I don’t wish to enter into a row between those two individuals who are able to stick up for themselves.



“But Sadiq was perfectly right to reassure the public about the presence of armed officers on the street.”

Johnson made the comments in a combative interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, in which he repeatedly tried to turn his answers round on Jeremy Corbyn’s record on opposing terrorism legislation.

The presenter, Mishal Husain, became so frustrated at one point that she asked him to “please stop talking”.

Mishal Husain: So the invitation to Donald Trump should not be rescinded despite what he said about Sadiq Khan? Boris Johnson: I don’t wish to enter into a row between those two individuals who are able to stick up for themselves, if I know them both. But Sadiq, as mayor of London, was perfectly right to reassure the public about the presence of armed officers. And I have to say it really is bizarre that we should be on Thursday be confronted with the possibility of prime minister Corbyn, home secretary Diane Abbott. MH: No, no, no, please stop talking. BJ: [scoffs indignantly] Please stop talking?! MH: No, no, I actually said ... It’s the third time you’ve mentioned Diane Abbott. You’re the foreign secretary, you’ve got a big job in government. BJ: [chuckling] Go on. MH: Whoever is PM, the Brexit negotiations will start in just over a week’s time and you’re putting forward a board of trade. What will our opening negotiations be? BJ: The PM has set out very clearly in her Lancaster House speech what our priorities will be ...

Johnson was most evasive on the issue of police cuts, after Khan warned on Tuesday that the Met was facing cuts of between 10% and 40% over the next four years, making it “harder to foil terrorist attacks on our city”.

Pressed repeatedly about whether the Conservatives would look at reversing cuts, Johnson said: “The mayor of London will know over the eight preceding years when I was mayor, before he became mayor, we kept police numbers high at about 32,000 and crime came down very considerably in that period. And when you look at counter-terrorism we are putting more money into that.”

Challenged about whether that meant a Tory government would not look again at future cuts, he said: “No, no, I don’t know how you derive that conclusion. We are increasing the number of armed officers. The numbers of police officers in our capital has remained high.

“It is up to the mayor of London to if he chooses spend more on policing. That is what we did. We reorganised to keep numbers high.”

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He segued into an attack on Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, and her position on security.

Johnson will make a speech on Brexit later on Tuesday in the north of England, in which he is expected to say Jeremy Corbyn will not have a “cat’s chance in Hades” of negotiating a good deal with the rest of the EU.



It is the first time he has been allowed to make a speech for the Conservatives during a campaign that has relentlessly focused on the leadership of Theresa May.

May has given her most direct criticism yet of Trump for attacking the London mayor over his response to the terror attack. She repeated that Trump’s state visit would go ahead but stated that his criticism had been wrong - the day after she did not directly address the comments when asked about them at a press conference.

“The relationship with America is our deepest and most important defence and security relationship,” she told The Sun.

“Having said that, I think Donald Trump is wrong in what he said about Sadiq Khan, in relation to the attack on London Bridge. We’ve been working with Sadiq Khan. When you’re working in the aftermath of an attack like that, party politics is put to one side.

“He’s been at the Cobras and we’ve been working with him to ensure the response was right, and to get London moving again.”

On Tuesday, the prime minister embarked on final a tour of marginal seats that the Tories are targeting, rather than focusing on constituencies they are defending.

She started in Lancaster and Fleetwood, a seat narrowly held by Labour’s Cat Smith, an ally of Corbyn. The prime minister drank a cup of coffee and met activists at a bakery owned by a Tory supporter, Neil MacSymons.