Sadiq Khan to accuse Tory hopefuls of 'aping' language of far right

Sadiq Khan will accuse Conservative leadership candidates of being willing to “ape and adopt” the language of the far right for short-term political gain.

Speaking at a dinner for Muslim leaders hosted by the Muslim Council of Britain on Tuesday night, Khan will call Tory leadership hopefuls “utterly shameful” for the party’s approach to Islamophobia and their failure to speak out against Donald Trump, saying anyone who wants to become prime minister must “get on the right side of history”.

Warning that Islamophobia can have consequences, such as the attacks on Muslims at mosques in New Zealand, the London mayor will say: “As we saw with the Christchurch massacre, this kind of deeply irresponsible behaviour and language has lethal consequences.

“Because when senior politicians use anti-Muslim language with impunity, and are even rewarded with a promotion, it only encourages those who seek to spread hate and sow division.”

Khan’s comments come in response to several Tory candidates, including Jeremy Hunt and Rory Stewart, refusing to condemn Trump outright after the US president tweeted criticism of Khan.

One tweet quoted the far-right commentator Katie Hopkins, who referred to the capital as “Khan’s Londonistan” and “stab city”.

At a hustings earlier this week, Hunt said Trump “has his own style” and, regarding Khan’s record as London mayor, he would “150% agree with the president”. Stewart suggested it would not be diplomatic to criticise the US president in public, but then tweeted his own condemnation of Hopkins’ tweet.

Boris Johnson, who did not attend the hustings, has not commented. Other candidates including Sajid Javid and Dominic Raab have made it clear they disagree with the president.

Khan will say the response from some Tory candidates showed a party “more interested in pandering to the far right at precisely the moment they should be confronting it”.

He will say the party must show it is serious about tackling Islamophobia by adopting a new definition of anti-Muslim hate and not readmitting members who have made racist remarks.

Denouncing the government’s refusal to adopt a universal definition of Islamophobia, devised after a six-month consultation by the all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims, he will say this has left Muslims “as one of the only communities in Britain without the right to play a crucial role in self-defining the discrimination from which they suffer”.

He will add: “I believe this isn’t an issue of left and right. It’s about right and wrong. So my message to the new leader of the Conservative party, whoever that may be, is this: get your act together. Get on the right side of history.”

Khan, who has also been an outspoken critic of Labour’s handling of antisemitism, will tell the dinner the “rise of hatred and the far right is not just a threat to Muslims”, and minority faiths have a duty to defend each other.

“We must all stand together to fight for those who are facing growing bigotry and intolerance. Whether it’s the LGBT+ community, who are facing fresh attacks on their hard-won rights, or whether it’s the Jewish community, who are facing the evils of antisemitism once again,” he will say.

Khan will say he had never wanted “to be defined as the Muslim candidate” or be “a spokesperson for the Muslim faith”. However, he will say he had recently felt the need to declare his identity more loudly.

“My faith is, and always will be, a fundamental part of who I am. And in these dangerous times, when we desperately need to stand up for our values, it’s more important than ever that we loudly say: I am a Muslim. And I am proud of it,” Khan will say.

On Tuesday night during the BBC Tory leadership hustings, Javid said he would commit to an external Islamophobia investigation into the Conservative party, and challenged other candidates to agree. His campaign team said he would consult on the format with civil society, party officials and faith groups.

“Sajid is deeply concerned about rising division in our society,” a spokesman said. “And though he does not have any reason to believe there is anything endemic in the Tory party that breeds Islamophobia, no organisation is immune from this cancer. So he’s pleased to open up the party to scrutiny; we must have the courage that the Labour party has so sorely lacked.”