Tory leadership candidate Sajid Javid has criticised Donald Trump for “trying to interfere” with British politics by feuding with London Mayor Sadiq Khan over violent crime.
Javid, the home secretary, told the US president, who he described as “unbecoming”, to “stick to domestic politics”, pointing out that there is “10 times” more serious violence in America than Britain.
His rival for the top job, foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, meanwhile, said he “150% agreed” with the president’s targeting of the London mayor over knife crime.
It comes after Javid, the home secretary, was excluded from the state banquet held in Trump’s honour during his recent visit to the UK, a decision the minister described as “odd” and which was criticised by Muslim community groups.
Trump has also faced criticism for attacking Khan over the spate of violence at the weekend in the capital, which has left four people dead.
The president shared comments about the crimes by controversial media personality Katie Hopkins in which she referred to the capital as “Khan’s Londonistan”.
Responding to Trump’s tweets about London, Javid told a lobby journalists’ leadership hustings in Westminster: “President Trump should stick to domestic politics.
“I think it’s unbecoming of a leader of such a great state to keep trying to interfere in other countries’ domestic politics.
“And also I think he was talking about serious violence, and clearly I’m deeply concerned about serious violence.
“There’s a lot going on across government, including the Home Office, especially the work that I’ve done with the new Offensive Weapons Act, bringing back stop and search, more funding, I want to see 20,000 more police officers on the streets as well, I think it’s a mistake numbers were cut so much.
“But on that issue again the president of the United States to be concerned about serious violence but he should be concerned about serious violence in his own country, which is more than ten times higher than it is in the UK.”
Hunt, who was among the ministers at the state banquet with Trump, had a very different response as he set out his stall.
When asked about Trump sharing Hopkins’ “Londonistan” tweet, Hunt told journalists: “President Trump has his own style and I wouldn’t use those words myself but the sentiment is enormously supported, that we have a mayor of London who is completely failing to tackle knife crime and has spent more time on politics than the business of making London safer, in that I 150% agree with the president.”
Hunt faced an immediate backlash from Tory leadership rival Rory Stewart, who urged the foreign secretary to clarify that did not agree with the “sentiment” of Hopkins’ “Londonistan” comment.
Michael Gove also criticised Trump’s retweet.
Gove told the hustings: “It’s always a mistake to retweet anything Katie Hopkins tweets.”
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