Sadiq Khan, Labour’s London Mayor candidate, says Corbyn should have sung the national anthem

Labour’s mayoral candidate for London, Sadiq Khan, has said that Jeremy Corbyn should have sung the national anthem.

The MP for Tooting made these comments while visiting a school in London. He told press at the event that it was a “mistake” for Labour’s new leader to not sing the national anthem at a memorial event for the Battle of Britain on Monday.

Corbyn has said that he was keeping a “respectful silence” and thinking about his parents who were air raid wardens during the Blitz. He has said that he will since the anthem in future.

On the national anthem, Khan said “I sing it all the time, although I don’t know all the verses. You only have to go to a citizenship ceremony to see how proud people are.”

Labour London Mayor candidate went on to praise Corbyn’s transformation of PMQs. On Wednesday Corbyn chose 6 questions from 40,000 sent in by the public to put to David Cameron. Khan said this was a good tactic “Normally it’s horrible, but when Jeremy asked questions there was a hush, and there’s never normally a hush unless someone’s died.”

However he said that there might be “a healthy tension” between himself and Corbyn over the issue of business.

“I want to be the most pro-business mayor that London has ever had, and if Jeremy Corbyn has any policies which are anti-business I’ll take him on because we should be encouraging and nurturing a pro-business mentality,” he said.

During the leadership campaign, Corbyn did outline his pro-business agenda, which emphasised policies to help small business owners, entrepreneurs, cooperatives and social enterprises.