Mayor Sadiq Khan says Donald Trump's presidency led to more racist online abuse

Speaking at Stanford University near San Francisco whilst on his US trade mission, Mayor Khan said temporary and permanent banning of Mr Trump from Twitter led to a sharp drop in such abuse.

Saying: "During those four years he was president, that led to me having to receive police protection and a lot of racial abuse."

Adding that "In the last year of him being president, once he was banned from Twitter, I received the least racial abuse of any time over five years.

"On the one hand, social media – Facebook Twitter – great. On the other hand, that’s the consequence of lack of control and lack of regulation."

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. (PA)

The former US president first criticised the London leader in 2016 for his response to the London Bridge terror attacks.

Later in 2019, Mr Trump called Mr Khan a "stone-cold loser" who had failed to manage crime rates in the capital. 

Mr Khan, who is also the first Muslim to be elected the mayor of a major Western city, used his appearance at the Stanford Speakers Bureau to offer Elon Musk some advice about allowing Mr Trump to return to Twitter.

The Tesla boss has said he will reverse the ban imposed on the former US leader as part of his plan to make permanent account suspensions a “rare thing”, if Mr Musk’s £34.5 billion takeover deal is finalised later this year.

With Mayor Khan saying: "Let’s wait and see if Donald Trump has learnt his lesson,” Mr Khan told Stanford’s students.

"If it’s the case that Donald Trump is going to use Twitter responsibly, I think that’s all well and good."

Adding that: "If he breaks the rules, there needs to be consequences and we can’t afford a situation where people think social media is where people behave irresponsibly, where you see an increase in not just racism, sexism and misogyny but also division.

"I hope Elon Musk, now he’s in charge of Twitter, understands that."