Sir Sadiq Khan is taking on Donald Trump and JD Vance with a new £7m campaign to fight the online disinformation he says is harming London’s reputation.
The London mayor said the city had been subjected to a “relentless and unprecedented attack of lies and hatred” on social media, describing online disinformation as a “global scourge”.
Fact-checking charity Full Fact has debunked a number of Donald Trump’s outlandish claims about London – including that “they want to go to Sharia law” – while US vice-president JD Vance was criticised for urging activists to “keep on going” after thousands gathered for a rally in the city addressed by Tommy Robinson.
There has been a nearly 200 per cent increase over the past two years in social media posts portraying London as dangerous or in decline, a report published by the Greater London Authority (GLA) earlier this year found.
The campaign will target audiences across Europe, the United States and Asia from September.
It aims to promote the capital by celebrating London’s “rich heritage, world-class experiences, culture, creativity and role as a centre for innovation and trade”.
Sir Sadiq said: “We are facing a relentless and unprecedented attack of lies and hatred from those wanting to damage our capital’s standing and our hugely important tourism industry.
“Disinformation about London has become a truly global scourge. It’s a money-making industry pushing lies about our capital and preying on people’s fears around the world, so we must fight back on a global scale.
“That’s why we’re creating this major new campaign to challenge these false narratives and demonstrate once again why there’s no better place in the world than London.”
A new GLA report also found social media users in Asia are being targeted by disinformation about London.
It found that in some months, more than 15,000 posts have been posted on X in Japanese with claims that the capital is lawless and under the influence of Islamic governance.
It also found one account that used AI imagery to falsely claim that millions of people attended Unite The Kingdom rally organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
President Trump has previously accused Sir Sadiq of doing a “terrible job”, adding that “crime in London is through the roof”, as part of his long-running war of words against the mayor.
In January, the Metropolitan Police said in January that the homicide rate in London dropped to its lowest in 11 years in 2025.
But the force has some of the highest rates per thousand people of personal robbery and theft from the person in England and Wales, among which phone thefts are a “significant” problem.
Figures released under Freedom of Information legislation show only a fraction of devices taken in London are returned to their owners. Between 2017 and February 27 2024, a total of 587,498 phones were stolen in London, excluding the City, 13,998 of which were recovered, and 573,500 were not.
Susan Hall, the leader of the City Hall Conservatives, said that Sir Sadiq “should spend more time trying to fix things as opposed to saying ‘la la la la la’, I’m not listening, everything’s fine’.”
Reform UK’s candidate for Mayor of London, Laila Cunningham, said: “If the Mayor of London wants to encourage more tourism, he should deal with the crime he has allowed to spiral out of control instead of suggesting that victims of crime are liars.”
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