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Sadiq Khan, who was sworn in as London’s first Muslim mayor last week, has reiterated plans to lead a trade delegation to Israel.

In an interview with London’s Jewish News published May 9, Khan, the first Muslim mayor of any Western capital city and London’s first Labour Party mayor in eight years, also said it is important to improve Jewish-Muslim relations in the British capital.

During his campaign, Khan criticized Labour for not doing enough to confront anti-Semitism among some of its members. Accusations of anti-Semitism have roiled his party in recent months, with dozens of members suspended in the past few weeks allegedly for making anti-Semitic remarks. London’s former Labour mayor, Ken Livingstone, was suspended for anti-Semitic remarks in late April following a series of interviews in which he claimed that Hitler had supported Zionism.

London’s newly elected mayor, Sadiq Khan, and his wife, Saadiya Khan, after voting on May 6 photo/jta-bloomberg-simon dawson

A self-described moderate Muslim — the son of a Pakistan-born bus driver — Khan was elected May 6 and took office the next day. He attended a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony with British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis on May 7 in his first official appearance as mayor.

“We’ve got to accept there are some people who say they’re Muslim, some people of the Jewish faith who don’t like the fact I’m here, that I’m sitting next to the chief rabbi,” he told the Jewish News.

“My message to those people is we live in the greatest city in the world and have to get along. I’m the mayor of London, the most diverse city in the world, and I’ll be everyone’s mayor.”

It is not clear yet how well Khan performed among Jewish voters. He campaigned hard in the Jewish community and has said he will be the “Muslim mayor who will be tough on extremism,” according to London’s Evening Standard newspaper.

A poll published the day before the election showed that Jewish support for his party was at historic lows. Hundreds of London Jews, including Britain’s chief rabbi, complained of being  turned away from the polls, told they did not appear on the list of registered voters.

Khan “could not have done more than he has to address the concerns of the Jewish community on anti-Semitism and engage with it — from attending a mock seder where he donned a kippah to meeting charities and kosher shoppers in north London,” said Justin Cohen, news editor for the Jewish News.

According to the Daily Mail, Khan was the first British minister to make the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, but he has also been the target of Islamist death threats because of his liberal social views, particularly his support of same-sex marriage. — jta