Donald Trump has arrived in the UK on Tuesday night to a barrage of criticism from Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, who has accused the US president of doing more than anyone else to encourage the intolerant far right across the globe.
In what will be considered to be a direct challenge to Keir Starmer’s government to take a more robust stance towards Trump, Khan said the president’s use of the military in cities and targeting of minorities was “straight out of the autocrat’s playbook”.
In a last-minute blow to Starmer before Trump’s highly contentious state visit, a plan to finally announce a deal to eliminate tariffs on British aluminium and steel into the US has fallen apart, the Guardian has been told.
Starmer has repeatedly cited the ability to avoid the worst of US tariffs as a reason for his largely conciliatory approach to Trump, and is likely to face renewed criticism for treating the US president to the pomp of an unprecedented second state visit.
On the Mall, union jacks and American flags have been put up for the US president’s visit. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
Trump will spend Wednesday with the king and queen and other royals at Windsor Castle, and the pageantry-packed agenda includes a tour, a military flypast and a banquet. On Thursday he will hold talks with Starmer at Chequers, the prime minister’s country retreat.
While there are plans for demonstrations targeting the president, the schedule means he is unlikely to see any of them. But as with any interaction with Trump, the visit is filled with uncertainty and political risk for Starmer, particularly the planned joint press conference at Chequers.
In an article for the Guardian, Khan said that while he understood the pragmatic reasons for maintaining good links with the US, Britain should not be afraid of criticising a leader who alongside his allies, he said, had “perhaps done the most to fan the flames of divisive, far-right politics around the world in recent years”.
Khan, who publicly clashed with Trump during his first state visit in 2019, condemned Trump’s use of the military in diverse cities, as well as the way some US citizens had been deported without due process: “These actions aren’t just inconsistent with western values – they’re straight out of the autocrat’s playbook.”
The so-called special relationship between the UK and US, Khan said, “includes being open and honest with each other”, adding: “At times, this means being a critical friend and speaking truth to power. This includes being clear that we reject the politics of fear and division.”
Khan also criticised British politicians and the media for failing to condemn increased hatred and intolerance, saying this had directly led to the huge far-right demonstration in London at the weekend.
“The scenes we saw didn’t come from nowhere,” he said of the protest, which was led by the anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson. “For far too long, our politicians and pundits have refused to condemn the rising tide of hatred in this country, instead choosing to dabble in dog-whistle politics and dangerous rhetoric themselves.”
He went on: “For our leaders, silence is no longer enough. The time has come to stand up and say: this is not who we are.”
Starmer has faced criticism for a seemingly slow response in condemning Saturday’s march, which also had a video address from Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, who said “violence is coming”, telling the crowd that “you either fight back or you die”.
But in more robust comments to a meeting of his cabinet on Tuesday morning, Starmer said that the UK faced “the fight of our times” against the division exemplified by the march.
According to a summary of his remarks, Starmer told his ministers “that some of the scenes of police officers being attacked on Saturday, and a march led by a convicted criminal, were not just shocking but sent a chill through the spines of people around the country, and particularly many ethnic minority Britons”.
It continued: “He said we are in the fight of our times between patriotic national renewal and decline and toxic division. He said the government must heed the patriotic call of national renewal, and that this was a fight that has to be won.”
Anti-Trump demonstrators. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
In the first response from the government, the business secretary, Peter Kyle, said on Sunday that he was not disturbed by the scale of the event or the far-right rhetoric heard at it “because it’s actually proof that we live in a country where free speech, free association, is alive and well”.
Asked why the No 10 line had seemingly moved on from Kyle’s view, Starmer’s official spokesperson said this was only part of the picture.
“Obviously, freedom of speech, freedom to march, is a core part of this country’s values,” he said. “But what he’s saying is, when some people see a convicted criminal egged on by foreign billionaire calling for violence, some people are going to legitimately feel scared and intimidated. Some of that will be because of their background or the colour of their skin.”
Wes Streeting used a speech to the LGBT foundation on Monday to say that he found it “laughable” that rising racism and homophobia could be seen as a sign of free speech.
The health secretary said he understood why some were questioning “whether this government is really on our side”, adding that the weekend’s protest was “not the kind of country any of us want to live in”.
