Donald Trump stirs up feud with London Mayor over attacks in city

The US President Donald Trump has further stirred up his ongoing feud with London Mayor Sadiq Khan by blaming the Pakistani-origin Labour leader a "disaster", blaming him for a recent spate of stabbings and street violence in the UK capital.  

Trump and Khan have repeatedly clashed ever since the mayor questioned the red carpet being rolled out for the US President by Britain, most recently for a state visit hosted by Queen Elizabeth II earlier this month. 

Khan has also likened Trump to "20th-century fascists" for his divisive views on immigration, with Trump hitting back with social media messages about his "terrible job" as Mayor of London.

The US President's latest intervention on Twitter follows in the same vein, demanding that Khan should be replaced.

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"London needs a new mayor ASAP. Khan is a disaster - will only get worse," he said, while retweeting a message that highlighted two stabbings and a shooting in London in the last few days.

"He is a national disgrace who is destroying the city of London," a follow-up message read.

Khan's spokesperson said the London Mayor's thoughts were with the victims' families and he "is not going to waste his time responding to this sort of tweet".

"Violent crime has no place in our city, and there's no higher priority for me than Londoners' safety," Khan said on Twitter.

His online feud with Trump dates back to just after Trump took office in 2016, when the Mayor called the President's proposed Muslim immigration ban "divisive and outrageous". 

After the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed the 2017 London Bridge terrorist attack, Trump said Khan was guilty of "pathetic" behaviour and in July last year he claimed the Mayor had "done a very bad job on terrorism".

The deaths over the past few days take the total number of murders in London in 2019 to 56