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Sir Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, has claimed that President Donald Trump continually attacks the British capital because he is “jealous he hasn’t got any global cities in the US that can compete with London”.

Khan also labelled as “unpatriotic” those on the right of British politics who he accused of trying to tear down London “because it’s diverse, progressive, liberal, multicultural and incredibly successful”.

In an interview with the Financial Times, London’s Labour mayor said the capital had become a proxy in a bitter culture war, which had spilled over into an increase in racism in the city.

That culture war is expected to reach new heights in London’s local elections in May 2026, with politicians on the right attempting to portray the city as unrecognisable due to mass migration, crime and a proliferation of graffiti.

Trump told Politico earlier this month that Khan was “a horrible mayor”, adding: “He’s an incompetent mayor, but he’s a horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor. I think he’s done a terrible job. London’s a different place.”

Trump has also claimed that parts of London had become no-go zones for the police, while vice-president JD Vance claimed in 2024 that London was becoming an “Islamist country”. Elon Musk has said the city is “filled with crime” and “often doesn’t feel like Britain at all”.

Rupert Lowe, a rightwing independent British MP, said this month of London: “Outside a few select posh areas right in the middle of the city, it increasingly resembles the third world.”

Khan said the rightwing attacks presented a picture of London totally at odds with reality, and that the city was attracting US citizens in record numbers since Trump’s re-election in November 2024.

He said the capital was safer than its US rivals and had notched up “more Number 1s than Elvis” in 2025, including as the most searched-for holiday destination and the most romantic destination in the world.

“I think some of this may be a president who’s jealous he hasn’t got any global cities in the US that can compete with London,” Khan said.

“New York is a great city, it’s probably the second greatest city in the world. But I’d be happy to compare Trump’s favourite city’s subway with our Elizabeth Line.

“There are far fewer homicides in London than in any state in the US, far fewer than in New York, LA or Chicago.”

Khan said he could understand why Trump would want to talk down a rival global metropolis, but was more disappointed that “unpatriotic” British politicians and commentators would follow suit.

“You are seeing politicians and commentators in the UK, Europe and across the globe attacking London,” he said. “They are often populists, nativists and unilateralists.

“I can see that they are worried about London’s success. That’s because we are a diverse, progressive, liberal and multicultural city that’s incredibly successful. We’re the antithesis of all the stuff they talk about.”

Khan admitted there were problems that needed fixing, including eradicating graffiti on older Tube lines where there was inadequate security and that more needed to be done to tackle street crime.

The image of London as a city where expensive watches and mobile phones are at risk of being stolen, often by criminals on scooters, has caused the capital harm.

The mayor, first elected in 2016, also warned Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government not to adopt tax policies that drove away the super wealthy. “The idea that all non-doms are bogeymen is not my experience,” he said.

But Khan said that some on the right wanted London to fail, when objectively the city was booming, both as a business centre and a global leader in the arts, sport and music.

London’s population has risen from 6.8mn in the 1980s — after decades of decline — to about 9mn today, with big recent investments by US companies including JPMorgan, Google, Apple and Bloomberg.

But he said an increasingly toxic British political debate had spilled over on to the capital’s streets.

“I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s and it wasn’t uncommon for me to hear people use the ‘P’ word to describe people like me, the ‘N’ word to describe black people and the ‘Y’ word to describe Jewish people,” he said.

“That had gone away. I hadn’t heard those words for 20-30 years. But in the last few years I’ve heard those words again. It is almost like the normalisation of bad words. And bad words lead to bad behaviour and criminal action.”

In 2021, more than four in 10 residents in London were born outside the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics, making the city one of the most ethnically diverse in the world.

“We are working hard to show people there’s a sense of belonging here,” Khan said. “Some of these commentators are trying to attack our city and pick at the social fabric of our city and we can’t let that happen.”

Data visualisation by Ella Hollowood and Janina Conboye