Tory candidate for London mayor accuses his rival of helping ‘those who seek to harm our police and capital’

Zac Goldsmith, the Tory mayoral candidate for London, cast himself as on the side of the “heroes” while his Labour rival’s career “involved coaching people how to sue our police”.

At the launch of Goldsmith’smanifesto, which focused on green issues, housing and transport, the Tory MP opened a new front over law and order claiming his opponent would be soft on crime because he “provided cover for extremists”.

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In his speech, Goldsmith said Labour’s Sadiq Khan was a politician who had “given platforms, oxygen and even cover – over and over and over again – to those who seek to do our police and capital harm”.

He added that Khan, the Muslim son of a bus driver, “has tried to silence questions about his links [to extremists] by shamelessly accusing anyone who raises them of being Islamophobic”.

Khan, who had been a respected human rights lawyer before entering politics, has said that the Goldsmith camp has tried to focus voters’ minds on his faith, in an attempt to divide religious and ethnic groups and persuade non-Muslims not to vote for him.

Goldsmith has been criticised for targeting Hindu and Sikh communities with letters from the prime minister raising questions over the security of “jewellery” in their homes should Khan become mayor and pointing out that he had met Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister who ran the state of Gujarat when it was rocked by anti-Muslim riots.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Boris Johnson urged activists to ‘Back Zac’. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

When questioned by reporters, Goldsmith said it was legitimate to question Khan’s “extremist” links. “I don’t believe [Khan] is an extremist. But it is a matter of judgment … Not everyone in the Muslim community has provided cover for extremists.”

Asked about whether he would be sending letters to the Muslim community like those sent to Hindu families, he said that he had personally leafleted outside “mosques and had held mosque meetings”. He said: “I want to reach out to everybody.”

In a sign of increasing worries, senior Tories have recently come to Goldsmith’s aid after what has been viewed as a lacklustre campaign. In the latest polls, Khan has extended his lead among first preference votes to eight points over Goldsmith.

On Tuesday Boris Johnson appeared side by side with Goldsmith, telling cheering activists that they should “Back Zac”. The outgoing mayor warned that London only had 23 days to “avert the disaster” of Labour “lefties” retaking City Hall.



Johnson has also targeted Khan’s links with a south London imam, Sulaiman Ghani, saying that he had “denounced gays and called women ‘subservient’, and called for the release of al-Qaida terrorists”.

Theresa May, the home secretary, has said she was worried about whether Khan had been a “friend” of Babar Ahmad, a south Londoner who ended up in a US prison after admitting providing material support [in the form of two positive articles on a website he ran] to the Taliban government at a time when they were harbouring Osama bin Laden.

Khan has described the attacks as “desperate”. Yvette Cooper, a former Labour cabinet minister, wrote that “the Goldsmith campaign is increasingly resorting to disgraceful, divisive tactics as the polls show the Tories falling further behind. Zac Goldsmith’s dog-whistle is becoming a racist scream.”