UK's Starmer brushes off Trump's 'nonsense' sharia law claim

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: AFP
25 Sep 2025 22:53
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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer dismissed Donald Trump's sharia law claims about London as "nonsense," defending Mayor Sadiq Khan amid a renewed feud that highlights long-standing tensions and Islamophobic rhetoric.

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US President Donald Trump, left, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer look at each other as they shake hands during a press conference at Chequers near Aylesbury, England, Thursday Sept. 18, 2025. (AP)

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday dismissed US President Donald Trump's claim that London is heading toward Islamic law under Mayor Sadiq Khan, branding the allegation baseless and absurd.

"There are a few things on which I and President Trump disagree," Starmer told reporters in London. "This is one of them. The idea of the introduction of sharia law is nonsense, and Sadiq Khan is a very good man and actually driving down serious crime."

Starmer's comments came in response to Trump's remarks at the United Nations General Assembly earlier in the week, where the US president attacked Khan as a "terrible mayor" and said, "Now they want to go to sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can't do that."

Despite what he called a "good state visit" by Trump to the UK earlier this month, Starmer rejected the comments outright. "We had a good state visit last week, but on this I disagree with him… the sharia law comments were ridiculous," he said.

Trump-Khan feud

Khan, London's first Muslim mayor and a member of the Labour Party, has repeatedly clashed with Trump since taking office in 2016. He criticized Trump's proposal to ban travel from several Muslim-majority countries, compared him to dictators of the 1930s and 40s ahead of Trump's 2019 UK visit, and responded to this latest attack by calling the US president "racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic."

Trump's claims about sharia law have been widely debunked. Fact-checkers note there is no evidence that London or Khan has sought to impose Islamic law, which has no legal standing in the UK. While voluntary Islamic councils do exist in Britain to mediate family or personal disputes within some Muslim communities, their decisions carry no force in British law and cannot override the country's courts.

The president's remarks have reignited his long-running feud with Khan, adding new strain to the UK–US relationship just weeks after a state visit meant to showcase alignment between the two allies. For Starmer, the episode also reflects a broader concern: the need to counter inflammatory rhetoric that plays into Islamophobic tropes while undermining the credibility of international dialogue.