The new leader of UKIP has said that he often confuses London mayor Sadiq Khan with the 7/7 bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, in a tweet that Labour condemned as “unacceptable racism”.

Richard Braine, who replaced Gerard Batten as the leader of the anti-immigration party at the weekend, made the remark just seven weeks ago.

On June 27, Braine misspelled the London mayor’s name on Twitter as “Siddique Khan”. After being corrected by another Twitter user, Braine replied: “Apologies, I often confuse him with the leader of the 7/7 bombers.”

Mohammad Sidique Khan was one of the terrorists responsible for killing 56 people and injuring over 700 in a series of bombings on the London Underground and on a bus in July 2005.

