Why is London mayor Sadiq Khan campaigning against Trump?

London mayor Sadiq Khan, whose official day job is running the capital, is in New York this week, where he has denounced Donald Trump and urged Americans to vote for Kamala Harris. Trump would set the wrong tone for the rest of the world, Khan declared. “What I’d say in a respectful way to Americans is: I don’t think you realize that the rest of the world is watching because we’ve got skin in the game,” he said. Come again? 

Trump would set the wrong tone for the rest of the world, Khan declared

Americans are choosing a leader for their country. What the world thinks about this — least of all Khan, who almost no one in America will have heard of — is really neither here nor there. No matter: Khan is determined to educate the American public in a way that he thinks only he is qualified to do. London’s mayor warned that a second Trump presidency would have much farther-reaching effects than Americans may realize:

“What happens in America is the metronome…that sets the best of what happens across the globe” he said. “It sets the beat for how other politicians behave in an election campaign.” There’s more in this vein. Trump’s politics and positions — from withdrawing once again from the Paris Climate Accord, to his refusal to accept election results in 2020 and his rhetoric about women and immigrants — are dangerous, Khan said. Yes, yes, but what’s any of this to do with the London mayor?

The Trump campaign has not yet made an official response to the mayor’s comments. Perhaps Trump thinks it’s not worth the bother. After all, Khan and Trump are not exactly the best of friends. The mayor has called the former president a racist, sexist and homophobe, and “just one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat.” Trump has said he doesn’t think much of Khan and called the mayor a “stone-cold loser” in 2019.

Even so, it is politically stupid of Khan to unilaterally reignite this long-running feud. It is hard to see what he hopes to achieve. By contrast, the downsides of doing so are plain enough.

Khan’s self-aggrandizing attack on Trump makes things harder for British prime minister Keir Starmer, who is also in New York this week to attend the United Nations General Assembly. He has already been forced to slap down unhelpful comments about Trump from Dame Angela Eagle, the immigration minister. She accused Trump of emboldening racists in Britain with his “vitriol.”

Starmer, when questioned about this en-route to New York, replied that he was “absolutely clear” that full responsibility for the unrest which swept Britain this summer lay with those who took part. What Starmer says publicly about America and its would-be leaders has real political consequences, which is why he is keen not to be seen to be taking sides ahead of the US election in November. Khan, whatever he might think, is an irrelevance on the international stage.

All the London mayor has really succeeded in doing is highlighting that he is in America this week rather than working in London. Khan is not believed to be attending the main UN event but is scheduled to appear at other fringe gatherings on climate change and business. 

The UN gathering, he claimed, shines a spotlight on issues and interests shared by the US, the UK and other countries. Ordinary voters might beg to differ: the UN appears increasingly irrelevant at a time when the world is convulsed by multiple crises and challenges, not least the conflagration in the Middle East. 

What Khan is doing in New York is anyone’s guess: it is certainly — figuratively and literally — a world away from his actual duties and responsibilities in London. The priorities for voters, who elected him for his third term earlier this year, are the bread and butter issues of crime, transport and housing. Even so, Khan has been merrily updating Londoners on his visit, writing on X: “So inspiring to visit the Billion Oyster Project in New York today and see how they’re embracing nature to clean up the Hudson River and embrace biodiversity. Re-introducing wildlife such as water voles, eels and otters will help us to restore London’s waterways.”

All of which must prompt the question: Has Khan really got nothing more pressing to do in London right now? His little jamboree to New York, talking piffle, interfering in the US politics and needlessly riling the man who might well be the next US president, is not a good advert for the craft of politics. 

Only yesterday, Starmer urged voters to embark on a “shared struggle” to fix the country. Politicians like Khan, busy swanning around places like New York to no tangible benefit, give little appearance of sharing in struggles — and the voters know it.

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.