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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now the Prime Minister has been accused of using tactics from Donald Trump’s playbook by the new Mayor of London.  Writing in the Observer Sadiq Khan says David Cameron and his opponent Zak Goldsmith tried to turn different ethnic and religious communities against each other during the mayoral campaign, we just heard Emily Thornberry’s reaction to that.  I am joined now by the Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi.  Well Emily Thornberry, so many people not just from the Labour party saying this really was below the belt, the way that that campaign was fought, dog whistle politics.  

NADHIM ZAHAWI: Well obviously I disagree with that and I’ll tell you why.  I’ve known Zak for many years and Zak is a principled candidate.  I’ve known Sadiq since he entered Wandsworth Council and Sadiq’s problem, as he’ll find when he is now Mayor of London is that people will actually take note of what he says and he says different things to different audiences.  Now during the Labour campaign for leadership Yvette Cooper called our Jeremy Corbyn for the friends he keeps, Hamas and Hezbollah, he calls them friends and of course this Imam, he said some really unsavoury things about women being subservient, about gay people having no rights, on the nights of the Paris bombings he spoke at a rally where people called for a rally, for Muslims to rally for Islamic State, he’s spoken at rallies with Hizb ut-Tahrir which is a proscribed terrorist group and Cage, this organisation which is an apologist for Daesh. I think it’s wrong that we don’t call out people when for whatever reason – and Sadiq may say I was a human rights lawyer, that’s why I shared a platform but also when he became a Member of Parliament said that moderate Muslims would be Uncle Toms.  Now I know he has apologised for it but I think it’s wrong that we live in a country where you can’t call out people for bad behaviour just because they happen to be Muslim or Sikh or any other religion.

DM: So how does that now play into him being Mayor of London, are you still saying then that the jury is out for you? You still want to judge him by the company he keeps?

NADHIM ZAHAWI: Not only the company he keeps, also what he says.  I want him to govern for the whole of London, I think Sadiq is going to have to go a long way to get to that place because his Observer column today already is divisive.   

DM: In what way?  

NADHIM ZAHAWI: Well I’ll tell you, on the one hand he says I want to bring Londoners together and then he says Conservatives behave like Trump.  Now Trump is basically saying Muslims are banned from the US, that is not what Conservatives believe in.  I think Sadiq needs to think twice before he begins to pretend like he’s the man who is going to bring London together and then starts throwing accusations like that.  I think that’s actually a very divisive accusation, to say that Conservatives are behaving like Trump is a terrible thing to say.  Trump wants to ban Muslims so your question to Sadiq has to be, look, one why did you call moderate Muslims Uncle Toms?  Why would you share a platform with someone who doesn’t believe in gay rights, doesn’t believe women should be equal and actually stands up for Islamic State, Daesh, at rallies just after the bombing in Paris?  What is that all about?

DM: So the bottom line is, do you feel that London is safe or is less safe in Sadiq Khan’s hands?  

NADHIM ZAHAWI: Well I hope he does a great job and I wish him luck and good luck to him because he ran a great campaign.  It was difficult for Zac, we’ve had a Conservative government, six years in, always difficult local elections, Zac fought a great campaign for that election and to try and now paint the Conservative campaign as if it was some sort of divisive campaign without looking at what did he do with this Imam, how come this Imam was so familiar to him?  He did a video endorsing Sadiq in 2010 for Parliament, that video …

DM: It’s like we’re still fighting the election.  It’s over, the public of London, the voters of London said we don’t believe that London will be less safe, we don’t believe that London will be divided if you become its mayor, haven’t they rejected those arguments?

NADHIM ZAHAWI: Well look, Sadiq has won, fair and square and good luck to him and I congratulated him the moment he won but I also said to him I hope he governs for the whole of London and Sadiq’s real weakness is he will say whatever that audience that he’s in front of …

DM: So you think he’s an extremist?  

NADHIM ZAHAWI: No, he’s a flip-flopper, he flip-flops.  I am just saying to you that Sadiq will say whatever it takes to whatever audience to try and win votes.  That will be found out now that he has the big job in City Hall so Sadiq will have to begin to behave in a much more responsible way and I think it’s a bad start by saying that Conservatives are like Trump. Trump wants to ban Muslims from America.

DM: But on the faith side of it, the service in Southwark Cathedral yesterday, he’s at a Holocaust Memorial today.

NADHIM ZAHAWI: It’s a beautiful thing, it’s a beautiful thing and I’ve got nothing … all I’m saying is that people like you Dermot and other journalists will begin to take note of what Sadiq says to different audiences and call him out, just like Yvette Cooper called out Jeremy Corbyn about his friends in Hamas and Hezbollah.  That’s what I’m saying, we shouldn’t live in a society where we fear talking about these things just because of someone’s own religion.  Whatever your religion is that’s a wonderful thing, London is a melting pot of all the great religions and no religion whatsoever, so it’s a good thing but he needs to behave responsibly.

DM: All right, Mr Zahawi, thank you very much indeed.  Nadhim Zahawi there.