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Sadiq Khan addresses Donald Trump Jr's attack on him in wake of London terror incident

President’s eldest child sparked outrage after he criticised the Mayor of London

Maya Oppenheim @mayaoppenheim 3 hours ago
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/saidq-khan-donald-trump-jr-london-attack-tweet-terror-westminster-bridge-parliament-us-president-son-a7645226.html

Sadiq Khan has addressed Donald Trump Jnr’s scathing attack on him in the wake of the Westminster attack.

The President’s eldest child stoked controversy after he criticised the Mayor of London in the immediate aftermath of the incident which killed three people. Trump Jnr shared a link to a six-month-old story by The Independent which quoted Mr Khan saying terror attacks were “part and parcel” of living in a global city.

“You have to be kidding me?!” Trump Jr said on Twitter.

You have to be kidding me?!: Terror attacks are part of living in big city, says London Mayor Sadiq Khan https://t.co/uSm2pwRTjO
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 22, 2017

After being asked about Trump Jnr’s criticism of him on the Today Programme on Radio Four, Mr Khan sharply said: “I’m not going to respond to tweets by Donald Trump”.

It is probable Mr Khan was referring to Mr Trump's son here rather than the president himself.

“What I will say about this is the threat level in London and our country remains the same: it’s severe. That means according to experts an attack is highly likely," the London Mayor continued.

“The commissioner who just retired said last year that as far as an attack was concerned it’s a question of when not if. Thankfully the police and the security services and the emergency services practise for such incidents. One I’m afraid has happened yesterday. The response from the police and the emergency services has been superb.”

Mr Khan was then pressed about whether we should accept terror attacks as “part and parcel” of London life but remained insistent terrorism should never be accepted.

“We must never accept terrorists being successful, we must never accept that terrorists can destroy our life or destroy the way we lead our lives,” he told host Michelle Hussain.

“We must never accept a situation where people try and divide Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs from each other or from those who are not members of organised faith. We must never accept a situation where people incite hatred against people because of the faith they belong to.”

London’s mayor, who has organised a vigil in Trafalgar Square at 6pm to commemorate victims of the attack, suggested people want to attack London because its citizens do not merely tolerate each other regardless of religion but “respect, embrace and celebrate" one another.

Mr Khan, the first Muslim to become mayor of a major Western capital, also referred to his own religion saying: “As the Mayor of London, I bring many experiences to this job including the faith I belong to and the experiences I’ve had growing up in the greatest city in the world.”

The Metropolitan Police is deploying extra armed and unarmed patrols across the capital to provide protection and reassurance in the aftermath of the tragedy, which investigators are treating as an Islamist-inspired terror attack.

It is not clear whether Trump Jnr, an executive of the Trump Organisation, read Mr Khan’s actual article or was aware the six-month-old piece bore no relation to the Wednesday attack outside the Houses of Parliament before criticising him.

In the article, Mr Khan said: “Nothing is more important to me than keeping Londoners safe. I want to be reassured that every single agency and individual involved in protecting our city has the resources and expertise they need to respond in the event that London is attacked.”

Trump Jr, who claimed his father’s comments about “grabbing” woman by the “pussy” are typical among some men and are “a fact of life” last year, is the first child of Mr Trump and Czech former model Ivana Trump.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/saidq-khan-donald-trump-jr-london-attack-tweet-terror-westminster-bridge-parliament-us-president-son-a7645226.html