Labour 2-0 down but has time to turn things around, says Sadiq Khan
Speaking at the Edinburgh festival fringe, the London mayor said Labour supporters would be 'delusional' if they did not recognise the difficulties the party had had since winning power in July 2024.
'It is really important now we really pick things up because I think we are 2-0 down.' Continuing his analogy, he said only 15 or 20 minutes of the match had gone, adding: 'The great news is we have turned it round before; we have won games before where we're 2-0 down, we can do it again.'
After taking Labour into Downing Street for the first time since 2010, the party's popularity has slumped in the polls, amid criticism over issues such as changes to welfare.
Khan said: 'It hasn't been a great first year. There have been great things that have happened in this first year, around the rights for renters, around the rights for workers, around energy security, and I could go on. But as first years go, it has not been a great first year.'
But he said his party had 'another four years to make sure we turn this around'.
Speaking at the same event, Khan said he would be 'more than happy' to meet Donald Trump – despite warning that the US president could be 'inadvertently radicalising people' and is 'not a force for good'.
He dismissed jibes Trump made against him on a recent visit to Scotland, where the president claimed the London mayor was 'a nasty person' who has 'done a terrible job'.
The Labour politician said such remarks were 'water off a duck's back'. But he told the audience it sometimes felt as if he was nine years old again and 'in the school playground'.
And Khan hit back at Trump, saying: 'Somebody who has views like he does about black people, about women, about gays, about Muslims, about Mexicans, thinks I'm nasty. Really. He is the leader of the free world, arguably the most powerful man in the world, and really.'
He said records showed that, from the date Trump started his term in January up to July, 'there have never been more Americans applying for British citizenship and living in London. So I think Americans have got good taste by and large'.
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He added that he hoped the president would come to London during his state visit to the UK next month, with Khan stressing the diversity of the capital was a 'strength, not a weakness' that made the city 'richer not poorer'.
He said: that, 'when President Trump says some of the things he does, it brings from the periphery to the mainstream, views that are potentially dangerous'.
Khan added: 'He inadvertently – I'm not going to suggest he does it deliberately – he inadvertently could be radicalising people with views that could lead to them doing things that are dangerous.'
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