Labour's candidate for London mayor has strongly backed the decision to take out the notorious Islamic State militant "Jihadi John" in a thinly veiled swipe at party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Sadiq Khan said he believed the country was safer as the result of the US drone strike - in a joint operation with the UK - which killed Mohammed Emwazi in Syria earlier this month.
Speaking to political journalists at Westminster, he also voiced his strong support for armed police officers who had to take "split second decisions" on when to open fire, saying: "I live in the real world".
His comments were in sharp contrast to Mr Corbyn who has questioned the legality of the drone strike on Emwazi and suggested he was "not happy" with the idea of a "shoot-to-kill" policy in the event of an armed terrorist attack.
"There is nothing I disagree with in relation to how Emwazi was taken out. I think we are safer as a consequence of him being taken out," Mr Khan said.
"I live in the real world. In the real world police officers who are part of the armed response team make split second decisions. In the real world decisions in relation to people like Emwazi need to be taken methodically - as they have been."
Mr Khan, a former human rights lawyer, added: "One of the most import roles of the mayor of London is to keep Londoners safe. The most important role for the prime minister of this country is to keep the British public safe."
His comments underlined the concerns among many Labour MPs about Mr Corbyn's national security credentials in the wake of his response to the Paris terror attacks.
Mr Khan also emphasised the "special role" which British Muslims had to play in tackling extremism - not because they were "more responsible than others" - but because they were more effective than anyone else.
He said there was a need to break down the "social segregation" which meant that too many Muslims grew up without ever really knowing anyone from a different background.
Mr Khan, who is himself Muslim, drew on his own experiences describing how people he had known as a boy had gone on to hold extremist views and, on occasion, act on them in "terrible ways".
"Extremism isn't a theoretical risk. Most British Muslims have come across someone with extremist views at some point - and so have I. It's affected my personal life, my friendships, and my career," he said.
"I've lost count of the number of times I've had to challenge the hideous views of seemingly intelligent and articulate people.
"People who look and sound like normal Londoners, until they say that 9/11 was a Mossad conspiracy. That the Jewish workers in the twin towers were tipped off and escaped."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel