British home secretary on Trump: Time to stop ‘interfering’ in UK politics

British Home Secretary Sajid Javid on Monday condemned President Trump’s criticisms of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, telling the president to stop “interfering” in U.K. politics.

“I did see the tweet,” Javid told BuzzFeed News, referring to a tweet where Trump called Khan a “disaster” after a knife crime in London. “I think President Trump should stick to domestic politics.”

“It’s unbecoming of the leader of such a great state to keep interfering in the domestic politics of another country. The president is right 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 U.K.”

{mosads}Trump on Saturday also retweeted right-wing commentator Katie Hopkins, who referred to the city as “Khan’s Londonistan.”

Javid is reportedly the first of the contenders for the Conservative Party’s leadership position, which Prime Minister Theresa May abdicated earlier this month, to defend Khan from Trump’s barbs.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, another Tory leadership contender, distanced himself from Trump’s wording, but agreed with the president’s point.

“President Trump has his own style and I wouldn’t use those words myself,” Hunt told BuzzFeed on Monday. “We have a mayor of London who has completely failed to tackle knife crime and in that I 150 percent agree with the president”.

The prime minister’s office declined to criticize Trump’s tweet on Monday, arguing it was a “matter for the U.S.,” per BuzzFeed.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn blasted the president’s tweets about Khan as “absolutely awful.”

Trump has taken aim at Khan, who is Muslim, for years and earlier this month referred to the mayor as a “stone cold loser” just ahead of his first state visit to the United Kingdom and London.