Goldsmith declares Khan ‘unfit’ to keep London safe
Zac Goldsmith condemns Labour opponent’s ‘bad judgment’ on extremism as he rejects racism claims
SADIQ KHAN is “unfit” to run London and protect Britain’s capital from a terrorist attack because of questions about his links to Islamist extremists, Zac Goldsmith says today. Speaking exclusively to The
Daily Telegraph, the Conservative candidate for the London mayoralty warns that Mr Khan has “given platforms and oxygen and cover and excuses” for extremists.
Mr Khan spoke at a conference alongside Yasser al-Sirri, who has subsequently said that Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader who masterminded the 9/11 attacks in America, “died an honourable death”. He also shared a platform with Sajeel Abu Ibrahim, who ac- cording to reports ran a camp in Pakistan that trained Islamist extremists, including Mohammad Sidique Khan, a bomber in the 2005 attacks on London.
Mr Goldsmith says that Labour’s candidate has shown “bad judgment” and says that a candidate who has been “so consistently wrong” on the issue of extremism for “so long” should not the mayor of London.
SADIQ KHAN is “unfit” to run London and protect Britain’s capital from a terrorist attack because of questions about his links to Islamist extremists, Zac Goldsmith has warned. In an exclusive interview with The
Daily Telegraph, the Conservative candidate for the London mayoralty said that Mr Khan had “given platforms and oxygen and cover and excuses” for extremists. He said Labour’s candidate had shown “bad judgment” and that a candidate who had been “so consist- ently wrong” on the issue of extremism should not be the mayor of London.
Mr Goldsmith hit out at “offensive” and “irresponsible” claims made by Labour that he and David Cameron were “racist” and “Islamophobic” for raising questions about Mr Khan’s links to Islamists.
In his interview, Mr Goldsmith also backed this newspaper’s campaign to toughen up Britain’s border controls, saying that “it is crazy” that the UK does not have “control” of who comes into the country.
And he said that Boris Johnson, the present mayor of London, could become prime minister after Mr Cameron steps down, commenting that Mr Johnson “could go all the way to the top of course”. Mr Goldsmith warned that a victory for Mr Khan would be a “massive thumbs up to the Corbyn project” which would make the Labour leader “immovable”.
However, it is his comments about Mr Khan’s links to numerous extremists that are likely to cause most anger among Labour ranks.
“I think that we are in the middle now of an ideological battle, and it’s the biggest one we’ve faced in any of our lifetimes,” Mr Goldsmith said.
“And probably it’s fair to say we’re not winning, we’ve got great security services keeping us safe, but the problem is not shrinking, it’s growing.
“One of the things we need to do is isolate those people who have extremist views and come down upon them without making the rest of the community feeling isolated.
“It’s very difficult but the one thing you don’t do is give platforms and oxygen and cover and excuses for people who are on the wrong side of the argument and that’s what [Mr Khan’s] done consistently.”
Mr Khan spoke at a conference alongside Yasser al-Sirri, who has subsequently said that Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader who masterminded the 9/11 attacks in America, “died an honourable death”.
He also shared a platform with Sajeel Abu Ibrahim, who, according to reports, ran a camp in Pakistan that trained Islamist extremists including Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the bombers in the 7/7 attacks on London in 2005. Last week, it also emerged that Mr Khan in 2004 shared a platform with five Islamic extremists at a meeting where women were told to use a separate entrance.
Mr Goldsmith added: “If you want to be mayor of London you have got to show good judgment and I think he has consistently shown really bad judgment, whether that’s opportunism or something else, but it is bad judgment and I think the idea that that extraordinary post should be held by someone who has been so consistently wrong on this issue for so many years, is at the very least a legitimate question to ask.”
Asked if London would be “safer” under his leadership, Mr Goldsmith said: “Yes, London would be safer if I’m mayor. Because I will work with the police, I’ll give the police the tools and the backing they need. I’ll work with government to ensure the police always have the resources they need and I will be on their side absolutely.”
Asked if Mr Khan was “unfit” to run London, Mr Goldsmith added: “You’re asking me is he fit for office, I don’t believe he’s fit for this office, but not just for the reasons we’re talking about now, but because he’s someone who has shown no consistency at all in politics or principles.”
He strongly hit out at claims made by senior figures in the Labour Party that his campaign had been “racist” “I will not accept anyone pointing the finger at me and telling me I am Islamophobic,” he said. “If I had given platforms 25 times to leaders of the National Front and then apologised for them when asked about their radical statements, my political career would have ended within seconds. I think it is wrong to apply a lower bar to Sadiq Khan.”
According to polls, Mr Goldsmith is on course to lose the vote on May 5 by a sizeable margin. YouGov suggests that he is 16 percentage points behind his Labour rival and would go on to lose once second preferences were allocated with just 40 per cent of the vote.
However, Conservative sources believe the race is much closer than the polls suggest, and point to the pollsters’ failure to predict the 2015 general election result as evidence that Mr Goldsmith still has a chance of victory.
Asked about The Telegraph’s campaign to increase controls at British borders, Mr Goldsmith said: “Of course, we have to have control of our borders. It’s crazy that we don’t have full control of our borders. It’s one of the big arguments in favour of Brexit. It’s not about saying ‘no’ to immigration. It is about saying ‘yes’ to control of the borders and also then allowing us to have a more global approach to immigration.”