{"id":353911,"date":"2025-08-18T10:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T10:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/353911\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T10:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T10:10:12","slug":"labour-2-0-down-but-has-time-to-turn-things-around-says-sadiq-khan-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/353911\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour 2-0 down but has time to turn things around, says Sadiq Khan | Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour would be 2-0 down were its time in government a football match, one of the party\u2019s most senior figures has said, as he admitted its first year in office has been difficult. But Sadiq Khan<\/a> stressed Labour still had plenty of time to win round the public.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Edinburgh festival fringe, the London mayor said Labour<\/a> supporters would be \u201cdelusional\u201d if they did not recognise the difficulties the party had had since winning power in July 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really important now we pick things up because I think we are 2-0 down.\u201d Continuing his analogy, he said only 15 or 20 minutes of the match had gone, adding: \u201cThe great news is we have turned it round before; we have won games before where we\u2019re 2-0 down, we can do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

After taking Labour into Downing Street for the first time since 2010, the party\u2019s popularity has slumped in the polls, amid criticism over issues such as changes to welfare.<\/p>\n

Khan said: \u201cIt hasn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his party had \u201canother four years to make sure we turn this around\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the same event, Khan said he would be \u201cmore than happy\u201d to meet Donald Trump \u2013 despite warning that the US president could be \u201cinadvertently radicalising people\u201d and is \u201cnot a force for good\u201d.<\/p>\n

He dismissed jibes Trump made against him on a recent visit to Scotland, where the president claimed the London mayor was \u201ca nasty person\u201d who has \u201cdone a terrible job\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Labour politician said such remarks were \u201cwater off a duck\u2019s back\u201d. But he told the audience it sometimes felt as if he was nine years old again and \u201cin the school playground\u201d.<\/p>\n

Khan hit back at Trump, saying: \u201cSomebody who has views like he does about black people, about women, about gays, about Muslims, about Mexicans, thinks I\u2019m nasty. Really. He is the leader of the free world, arguably the most powerful man in the world, and really.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said records showed that, from the date Trump started his term in January up to July, \u201cthere have never been more Americans applying for British citizenship and living in London. So I think Americans have got good taste by and large\u201d.<\/p>\n

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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 \u201cstrength, not a weakness\u201d that made the city \u201cricher not poorer\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWhen President Trump says some of the things he does, it brings from the periphery to the mainstream, views that are potentially dangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n

Khan added: \u201cHe inadvertently \u2013 I\u2019m not going to suggest he does it deliberately \u2013 he inadvertently could be radicalising people with views that could lead to them doing things that are dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour would be 2-0 down were its time in government a football match, one of the party\u2019s most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-353911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115049229388392712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}