London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said Donald Trump “got the message” after the US President cancelled a visit to London in the face of planned protests.
Trump insisted he wouldn’t visit next month because he did not want to cut the ribbon on the new US embassy, tweeting that the building’s relocation was a “bad deal”.
The president’s plan to visit has caused huge controversy and repeated calls for Theresa May to withdraw the invite - though she insisted as recently as Sunday that he was still coming.
Trump tweeted early on Friday morning to confirm a story in the Daily Mail that he had cancelled the visit.
London Mayor Khan, who has been the subject of angry Trump tweets before, said: “His policies and actions [are] the polar opposite of our city’s values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance.
“His visit next mont would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests.”
Khan
Boris Johnson has branded Sadiq Khan a “puffed up pompous popinjay” after the London Mayor welcomed Donald Trump cancelling a trip to the UK capital.
Trump’s tweet said he was “not a big fan” of the decision to move the US embassy and blaming the Obama administration - though the decision was actually made by the Bush administration.
“Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!” Trump tweeted.
Ex-Labour leader Ed Miliband tweeted Trump had cancelled because “nobody wanted you to come and you got the message”.
Labour MP Stephen Doughty said Trump cancelled his trip because “we are not a big fan of his racist, sexist, unthinking behaviour”.
Chuka Umunna, another Labour MP, clashed with ex-Ukip leader and Trump supporter Nigel Farage on Radio Four’s Today programme.
Umunna highlighted how Trump had recently retweeted far right Islamophobes Britain First, causing a huge row between the UK and the US.
“I hate racists and I hate misogynists. I dislike Islamophobes,” he said, in a heated exchange with Farage, who accused him of being “anti-American”.
Protesters celebrated.
May said on the weekend that Trump is a “committed” US President and his state visit to the UK was not under threat.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, she was asked: “In the States there are quite serious questions being raised by some people about his mental state.
“Do you think they’re serious?”
The PM replied: “No. As I say when I deal with President Trump what I see is somebody who is committed to ensuring that he is taking decisions in the best interests of the United States.”
She added: “He will be coming to this country.”
The decision to move the US embassy from Grosvenor Square to Nine Elms was taken in 2008, in the last months of George W. Bush’s presidency.
The decision was made for security reasons.
The new embassy is in Nine Elms, south of the River Thames. The area is due to get its own London Underground station when the extension to the Northern Line.
The BBC’s Huw Edwards tweeted a photo of the new building and dismissed Trump’s claim it was “off location”.
Jon Sopel, the BBC’s North America editor said the prospect of protests would have weighed on Trump’s mind.
It follows a difficult year for Trump’s relations with the British Government.
May criticised Trump directly when her official spokesman said the President was “wrong” to have retweeted Britain First’s attempts to “divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tension”.
Trump responded on Twitter.
Defending Trump, Boris Johnson said the President did not take a “namby-pamby” approach to politics.
“Maybe he’ll ruffle feathers - there’s no question that maybe some feathers were ruffled,” he added.
This non-namby-pamby approach has been on full display today after it was reported he referred to Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries”.