Sadiq Khan says terror threat has risen since he became Mayor last year

Mayor tells MailOnline that keeping people safe is 'increasingly difficult'

Urges government not to cut police funding and criticises Trump's travel ban

The terror threat from ISIS is reaching new highs and cutting police budgets could cost lives, Sadiq Khan has warned.

The London Mayor said the danger of attacks in the capital had risen since he entered city hall last May and keeping people safe was becoming 'increasingly difficult'.

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Describing an 'evolving' threat focusing on radicalising young Muslims over the internet, Mr Khan raised fears that Donald Trump's travel ban will hand ISIS a powerful propaganda tool.

The terror threat from ISIS is reaching new highs and cutting police budgets could cost lives, warns Sadiq Khan (pictured in December)

Yesterday's attack in Paris where a man stormed the Louvre with a machete underlined the continuing threat from terrorism in major cities across Europe

The grim message, delivered in an interview with MailOnline, comes after the latest apparent terror incident at the Louvre in Paris yesterday.

Mr Khan, who has been embroiled in a growing row with the government over Scotland Yard's budgets, said ministers had effectively stripped hundreds of millions out over recent years.

And he voiced alarm at plans to shake up how police funding is distributed across the country.

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'The reality is that if you look at other global cities, Berlin, Istanbul most recently, but Paris and other parts of the world. Our global cities are targets for terrorists,' he said.

'If the government changes the police funding formula and if they fail to fund London as a capital city… I think keeping London safe is becoming increasingly difficult.'

Twelve people were killed and 50 more were injured when a terrorist drove a heavy truck into a packed Christmas market in Berlin at 40mph.

And last July, 86 people were killed and another 434 were hurt when a jihadi drove a 19-ton lorry into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice.

Islamic State is already thought to have terror cells in the UK. The jihadis are believed to be plotting a massacre on the scale of the atrocities in Berlin and Nice.

Our global cities are targets for terrorists, the London Mayor told MailOnline in an interview. Pictured: Paris after an attack yesterday

Scenes in Paris after a man was shot by a soldier while trying to storm the Louvre art gallery armed with a machete

The London Mayor (pictured unveiling a major development of Greenwich Peninsula) said the danger of attacks in the capital had risen since he entered city hall last May

Mr Khan pointed to the view of counter-terror chiefs that an attack on Britain is a question of 'when not if'.

The threat level is currently 'severe' - meaning an incident is considered 'highly likely'.

He said maintaining officers numbers in the capital at around 32,000 was crucial because they are the 'eyes and ears' of security services.

Insisting the threat from ISIS had 'without doubt' risen since last May, Mr Khan said: 'The bad guys want to harm us. They hate the fact that we live together, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, those members of an organised faith and those who aren't, peacefully,' he said.

'Because of the hard work of our police and security services a number of terror attacks have been foiled.'

The mayor said the tactics of extremists were constantly 'evolving'. Whereas previously the danger was 'upstream' from terrorists coming into the country, there was now more of an issue with young Muslims being radicalised 'in their bedrooms' over the internet.

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'The police and security services work incredibly hard. We can't escape the fact that ISIS and Daesh are now using the internet to radicalise Brits,' he said.

'We saw in the last year-and-a-half, Londoners born and raised in our city radicalised in their bedrooms to the extent where they jump on a plane and go to Syria.'

He added: 'The best way it has been explained to me is that the bad guys are evolving.'

Donald Trump's decision to impose a temporary ban on nationals from seven mainly-Muslim countries coming to the US has sparked a backlash. Pictured, the President with an executive order in the Oval Office

US President Donald Trump described the Paris attacker yesterday as a 'radical Islamic terrorist' and said France was 'on edge again'

Renewing his criticism of President Trump over his temporary ban on nationals from seven mainly-Muslim countries coming to the US, Mr Khan said: 'What is the thesis or the narrative of so-called ISIS or Daesh?

'Their narrative is that Western liberal values are incompatible with Islam. Their narrative is that the so-called West 'hates us'.

'We know that is rubbish. We know it is possible to be a westerner and a Muslim. We know it is possible to be a Brit and a Muslim and proud of both.

'Inadvertently President Trump is playing into the hands of ISIS and Daesh by giving the impression that being a Muslim is incompatible with being a friend of America and visiting America.'

Mr Khan offered to 'educate' Mr Trump, accusing him of having a 'blind spot' over relations with the Muslim community.

'I am all for people who have a blind spot or need illuminating or educating being educated,' he said.

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'So I am in favour of explaining to President Trump why it is important for us to build bridges not walls.'