Labour's candidate for Mayor of London has defended his links to infamous Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Sadiq Khan represented Farrakhan in the early 2000s in his efforts to overturn a ban on coming to Britain.

Farrakhan is a hugely controversial figure who has denounced white people as 'devils' described jews as 'bloodsuckers' and called Hitler a 'very great man'.

Mr Khan, who is MP for Tooting, is attempting to follow Boris Johnson as London mayor in May. His main opponent is Tory MP for Richmond upon Thames, Zac Goldsmith.

Sadiq Khan, pictured in 2001 during his work on Louis Farrakhan's case, has insisted his job as a human rights lawyer meant he had to represent some 'unsavoury individuals'

Yesterday Mr Khan defended his role in the legal bid.

In an interview with Jack Mendel at Jewish News he said: 'I have never hidden the fact that I was a human rights lawyer.

'Unfortunately, that means that I had to speak on behalf of some unsavoury individuals.

'Some of their views made me feel deeply uncomfortable, but it was my job.'

Sources close to Mr Khan said he had condemned extremism and radicalisation publicly for his entire career.

But reports from the time reveal he played a very public role in attempting to get Farrakhan into Britain.

He was, and remains, banned because of fears his anti-Semitic views would stir up racial hatred.

In 1990 Farrakhan sparked outrage after claiming Jewish people controlled the US 'like a radar controls the movement of a great ship in the waters' and had 'got a stranglehold on the Congress'.

He has described Jews as 'bloodsuckers' who profited from the slave trade. Judiasm he called a 'dirty religion' and a 'gutter religion'.

'The Jews don't like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well Hitler was a great man.'

White people he said were 'devils by nature'.

In August 2001, a court ruled the ban breached Farrakhan's human rights and ruled he should be allowed into the country.

But the ruling was later overturned by the Court of Appeal and Farrakhan never set foot in Britain.

At the time, Mr Khan described him as 'the leader of a vast section of the black community'.

He also denied that Farrakhan was anti-Semitic or a preacher of racial hatred, saying: 'Mr Farrakhan is not anti-Semitic and does not preach a message of racial hatred and antagonism'.

Yesterday Mr Khan insisted that 'even the worst people deserve a legal defence'.

But Farrakhan was not facing criminal charges, the case was a human rights challenge against the government.

Mr Khan, pictured during a campaign stop, is running against Tory Zac Goldsmith in the race to replace Boris Johnson at London's City Hall

Jack Straw, then Home Secretary, blocked Farrakhan's entry into the UK in 2000 after concluding his presence would 'pose an unwelcome and significant threat to community relations and in particular to relations between the Muslim and Jewish communities here and a potential threat to public order'.

When his decision was overruled by the High Court, the Board of Deputies of British Jews said the ban was justified 'in the light of Farrakhan's philosophy of racial segregation and hostility'.

When the ban was overturned, Mr Straw's successor David Blunkett said 'the Home Secretary's right to exclude someone from the country whose presence is not conducive to good public order has been upheld'.

Yesterday the Tooting MP said attempts to link him to extremism were 'desperate'.

He has been accused of appearing at a series of events alongside known extremists.

In his interview he said the rise of anti-semitism was 'deeply distressing and upsetting'. Jewish Londoners had 'more than most' suffered at the hands of extremists, he said.

'I accept that the Labour Party in the last two elections is not the natural place where Londoners of the Jewish faith have placed their vote.