London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Piers Morgan clash over Trump ‘baby’ balloon as Dailymail.com columnist asks him: ‘Would you endorse a flying black baby of Obama?’
Mayor has come under fire over his approval of ‘Trump blimp’ over London
Today he insisted people are free to protest and he could not act as a ‘censor’
Piers Morgan said he would not have approved an Obama or Clinton balloon
By RICHARD SPILLETT
DAILYMAIL.COM
10 July 2018
Sadiq Khan has defended his approval of a giant ‘baby Trump’ blimp which will fly above London during a visit by the US President.
The city’s Mayor has come under fire after his Greater London Authority approved plans by protesters to fly the balloon in the centre of London during a demonstration against Mr Trump’s visit.
Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan today challenged Mr Khan over the issue, suggesting he had approved it because of personal animosity towards Mr Trump.
Mr Khan insisted there is freedom of speech and freedom to protest in the UK and he could not act as a ‘censor’.
He said: ‘My views are irrelevant. The issue is ‘Do they have freedom to protest, freedom to assemble and should they be allowed to do so? If it’s peaceful and it’s safe they should.’
Morgan asked the mayor if he would have endorsed a giant black baby blimp of Barack Obama in protest during his presidency, or an image depicting Mr Khan as a pig despite that being offensive to Muslims.
Mr Khan said: ‘If it’s peaceful and if it’s safe. Look, I can’t be the censor. It’s not for me to decide what’s in good taste or bad taste.’
The 20ft (6m) high inflatable, dubbed ‘Trump baby’, has been granted permission to rise above Parliament Square Gardens for two hours on Friday morning.
Mr Khan said he supported the decision taken by the Greater London Authority, adding that it was not for him to be a ‘censor’.
Mr Khan and the American leader have engaged in a long-running war of words over issues like crime and terrorism.
Morgan said it was ‘utterly ironic and weird’ that there could be bigger protests around Mr Trump’s visit than during trips to the UK by the leaders of countries with questionable human rights records including Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
It is believed that more than 50,000 take to the streets of the capital to protest against the President’s visit.
Meanwhile, a 200-metre crop circle displaying the words ‘f*** Trump’ in Russian has been mown into a field of wheat near the Prime Minister’s country home of Chequers.
Mr Trump’s schedule will largely keep him out of central London and it seems unlikely that the US president will come close enough to Westminster to see the blimp.
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