Speaking in the chamber, the prime minister alleged that Mr Khan had repeatedly appeared alongside an “Islamic State supporting” cleric, a charge that was met with cries of “racist” and “disgraceful” from the opposition benches.
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I have say I am concerned about Labour’s candidate as Mayor of London who has appeared again and again and again.
A furious row erupted after the Prime Minister attacked Labour’s candidate for London mayor and accused him of sharing platforms with known extremists.
“Sulaiman Ghani, Mr Khan has appeared on a platform with him nine times”. This man supports IS. He even shared a platform…well Mr Speaker, I think they are shouting down this point because they don’t want to hear the truth.
Mr Cameron was referring to Mr Khan appearing at the same events as the radical preacher Suliman Gani. He added that, following the election, the Tories had asked him to them find potential local councillors. He said felt he had been used by the Conservatives “as a scapegoat to discredit Sadiq Khan”.
A senior Labour source later accused the Prime Minister of “demeaning his office”, while Mr Khan himself said he was “disappointed” Mr Cameron had chosen to join a “dog whistling” campaign by London Tories.
Sadiq Khan’s lead over Tory mayoral rival Zac Goldsmith has soared to 16 points according to a new YouGov poll for the Evening Standard.
David Cameron has been accused of “dog whistle politics” after launching a blistering attack on Sadiq Khan.
Cameron can not be sued for defamation because his comments are protected by parliamentary privilege.
Labour sources have pointed out that Gani has also shared a stage with Jane Ellison, the Conservative health minister and met Tory MP Tania Mathias.
In response to a backbench question, Cameron said if they are going to “condemn” violent extremism it is important they “do not back these people”. Gani said he “didn’t have a problem with that”, and that when he’d raised a question at the meeting he’d been “introduced by Dan Watkins as, “this is imam Suliaman” – he knew that I did support him in the previous election”. “But as you’ve just pointed out IS stands for Islamic State”.
A Downing Street source said that Cameron had been raising an issue about Khan’s “judgment” and rejected claims of racism as “complete nonsense”. “That’s a perfectly legitimate thing to do”, he said.
Labour MP Alison McGovern branded the Prime Minister’s attack an “act of desperation” and Chuka Umunna said it was “utterly disgraceful”. I’ve never hidden from the fact that I was a human rights lawyer… “Sadiq should win with a massive majority, given the demographic of London and past performance. No one associated with my campaign team has called Sadiq Khan extreme”, he added.
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“I regret giving the impression I subscribe to their views. I’ve said, and it’s not a flippant line, it’s something I believe quite strongly about, that I will be the British Muslim who take the fight to the extremists”. He said: “My campaign has been overwhelmingly positive”. “There are some fantastic people in the Islamic community in London who make a real difference to our capital city and they would have no truck either with people who support Isis”.
