Sadiq Khan should be ashamed of his attack on the Chief Rabbi

A while back, Lee Anderson got himself into trouble for claiming Islamists had ‘got control’ of Sadiq Khan. Levelling said charge at London’s Mayor was said to be ‘Islamophobic’ but surely more important is that it was wrong. Khan is neither an Islamist nor under their sway. He is a standard-issue identity-politics progressive, and with that comes a toxic farrago of communalism, victimhood narratives and offence opportunism. It is Khan’s identity-politics progressivism that was on display when he implied that comments by Sir Ephraim Mirvis were motivated by anti-Muslim prejudice.

The row originates in a tweet posted by Sir Ephraim on Halloween 2023 following a meeting with Khan, prior to which Khan had demanded a ceasefire in Israel’s military operation against Hamas. Sir Ephraim wrote:

‘This afternoon at City Hall, I thanked Sadiq Khan for his ongoing, unequivocal commitment to fighting antisemitism across London and I also explained to him why I believe that a ceasefire now would be an irresponsible stepping stone to yet more Hamas terrorist brutality.