London mayor chooses Chicago as 1st visit to a US city

Khan’s first official trip to North America as London’s mayor began earlier in the day Thursday when he met with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Khan did not mention Trump by name, but attacked the NY property tycoon’s controversial proposal to ban Muslim immigration to the United States, which he made after the Orlando massacre.

Khan said Trump is “playing into the hands of ISIS” by proposing a ban on Muslim immigrants, which suggests that Muslims can’t be mainstream and modern.

Emanuel added, “I think that’s a tremendous statement in a world that wants to exacerbate differences”.

Later Mr Khan said he would be open to meeting Mr Trump during his trip, along with any other presidential candidate.

London mayor Sadiq Khan has accused USA presidential candidate Donald Trump of “playing into the hands of Daesh”.

“As the father of two daughters, I think the message it sends when the most powerful politician in the world is a woman is phenomenal, and hope she wins”.

The mayor’s north America tour is meant to show London is “open for business” in the wake of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.

He told the Press Association: “It’s not for me to get directly involved in the United States presidential election”.

“We need to be sure that minority communities have a sense of belonging, so that they are as resilient as possible to extremism and radicalization”.

But Mr Khan and his delegation of London-based entrepreneurs were primarily focused on trying to ease concerns over a British exit from the European Union during their five-day trip to Montreal, Chicago and NY.

The mayor said the Republican candidate’s message showed a “lack of understanding”.

Canada accepted 25,000 Syrian refugees between November 2015 and February 2016, while the United Kingdom has pledged to resettle 20,000 by 2020.

His trip runs contrary to the USA visit from former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, who presented an upbeat message of defeating the political establishment on stage with Donald Trump.

During his five day trip across the Atlantic, Mr Khan will also visit NY and Montreal.

He is also stressing the importance of “building bridges rather than walls” – a reference to Mr Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. Shortly after taking office in May, the London mayor called Trump “ignorant” for his comments about Muslim immigration.