Labour Mayoral hopeful, Sadiq Khan MP, has been accused of calling voters “b*stards” in a speech to party activists. The close ally of Ed Miliband made the comments on election night after Labour failed to take Battersea, but what he said has only just come to light.
He was reported in SunNation as having said “voters are b*stards” but his staff insisted he did not really mean it. His spokesman told the website: “Sadiq made a number of speeches to disappointed Labour campaigners on polling day and he knows very well that the voters are always right”.
Dan Watkins, who lost to Khan in Tooting, said: “This remark shows an extraordinary disrespect for the electorate. To call them bastards because they didn’t elect Ed Miliband shows just how much he and Labour still have to learn from the election result.
“Oddly, Sadiq didn’t share his feelings about the voters with them during our election campaign.”
Khan is already a controversial choice for Mayor of London due to his links with the convicted Al-Qaeda terrorist Babar Ahmed. The two are believed to have been friends as teenagers and Khan campaigned to have him released from prison as he fought extradition to the US. The MP even presented an 18,000 strong petition to the then Home Secretary, Charles Clarke on Ahmed’s behalf.
In the end Ahmed pleaded guilty to terror offences in the US and is currently serving a 12 year prison sentence.