Conservative London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith has accused his Labour rival Sadiq Khan of \u2018playing the race card\u2019 after Khan took issue with Goldsmith\u2019s description of his politics as \u201cradical and divisive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khan\u2019s team suggested the use of the term \u201cradical\u201d<\/em> in reference to a Muslim candidate in Tory election leaflets released by Goldsmith in early December was a coded way of linking Khan to extremism.<\/p>\n \u201cCalling someone divisive and radical, be very careful how that\u2019s perceived. You\u2019re playing with fire. When you say that about a candidate of Islamic faith, what are you implying? That will come back and bite you in the bum if you resort to that,\u201d<\/em> Khan wrote in Sunday Times after the leaflets\u2019 release.<\/p>\n Goldsmith, MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston, however said he was referring to the \u201cextraordinarily radical\u201d<\/em> changes happening in the Labour Party since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader in September.<\/p>\n Goldsmith told BBC\u2019s Radio 4: \u201cIf I cannot use the term radical to describe what has happened to the Labour Party… then I don\u2019t know when I would be able to use the term.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI think he is playing with fire. I don\u2019t think there is anything more divisive than playing the race card when clearly, unambiguously, it does not apply.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very obvious that what I was referring to when I described him as a radical candidate as part of a radical process that has enveloped the Labour Party and taken our politics in an extraordinary direction.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Responding to Goldsmith\u2019s BBC interview, a spokesperson for Khan said: \u201cIt was the Zac Goldsmith campaign which put out the infamous dog-whistle leaflet branding Sadiq as \u2018radical\u2019 just because he happens to be a Muslim. And it was Zac Goldsmith\u2019s campaign which had to launch an investigation after alleged racist remarks from a Tory canvasser to a voter.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n This row is the latest in a series of escalating exchanges between the two men vying for City Hall in May, when incumbent Boris Johnson has pledged to stand down.<\/p>\n Zac Goldsmith on the Today programme defending his description of Sadiq Khan as “Radical”. 6th form level evasion & quibbling. Very poor.<\/p>\n \u2013 Jon Ward (@ditdotdat) January 5, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Khan, MP for Tooting, has said he will not criticize his opponent for his privileged background but suggested the son of billionaire financier James Goldsmith may not have qualifications to be mayor of one of the world\u2019s financial capitals.<\/p>\n \u201cLondon is one of the leading global commercial cities in the world, so I ask the question \u2018Do you want as Mayor of London … someone who has never had a proper job, someone whose only job was one given you by your uncle to run his niche magazine?\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n For his part, Goldsmith has accused Khan of being a machine politician who flip-flops on major issues when politically convenient.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>.\u00a0This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Conservative London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith has accused his Labour rival Sadiq Khan of \u2018playing the race card\u2019 after Khan took issue with Goldsmith\u2019s description of his politics as \u201cradical and divisive.\u201d Khan\u2019s team suggested the use of the term \u201cradical\u201d in reference to a Muslim candidate in Tory election leaflets released by Goldsmith in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n