{"id":116591,"date":"2025-09-05T15:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T15:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/116591\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T15:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T15:18:08","slug":"sadiq-khan-opposes-london-event-over-concerns-it-will-offend-asylum-seekers-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/116591\/","title":{"rendered":"Sadiq Khan opposes London event over concerns it will offend asylum seekers | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sadiq Khan has come under fire<\/a> after saying London\u2019s biggest arms fair offends asylum seekers.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Mayor said he was \u201ccompletely opposed\u201d<\/a> to the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) and said it was “inappropriate” for the city to act as a market stall for weapons.<\/p>\n

But his shocking intervention drew a furious response from Conservative Leader<\/a>, Susan Hall, who accused him of ignoring Londoners.<\/p>\n

She demanded: \u201cWhose side are you on?\u201d and warned the Mayor to \u201cstart looking after the majority\u201d in a video blasting Khan on social media.<\/p>\n

Ms Hall told the Express that she felt Londoners “were sick and tired of the Mayor posturing on stuff that’s nothing to do with him, when he’s failing to tackle crime and transport chaos at home.”<\/p>\n

The criticism comes as RMT Union workers on the London Underground threaten strike action next week.<\/p>\n

But Khan\u2019s spokesman defended the Mayor saying: \u201cThe Mayor is completely opposed to this event taking place in London and is appalled that the capital is being used as a marketplace for those who wish to trade in weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mayor has previously written to both the organisers and ExCel, to remind them that London is home to thousands of people who have fled conflict and suffered as a result of weapons like those exhibited at this event, and continues to urge them to reconsider hosting the fair in London in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DSEI event, due to run from September 9 to 12 at the ExCel Centre, is Britain\u2019s biggest weapons fair.<\/p>\n

Defence companies from all over the world come there every two years to show off their latest gear, with government and industry bosses striking deals worth billions.<\/p>\n

Organisers insisted the show is vital for supporting allies such as Ukraine<\/a>, where Western weapons are used to resist Russian aggression.<\/p>\n

And industry insiders, speaking to the Mail, dismissed the Mayor as political grandstanding, warning that he\u2019s ignoring the reality of the threats facing the west.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sadiq Khan has come under fire after saying London\u2019s biggest arms fair offends asylum seekers. A spokesman for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,388,50,14751,56040,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-116591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-london","tag-news","tag-sadiq-khan","tag-sadiq-khan-london","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}