Labour MPs clash over account of Tony Blair meeting following 7/7

Khalid Mahmood MP and former Labour MP Shahid Malik have today criticised Sadiq Khan, accusing the London Mayor hopeful of misrepresenting the words of Tony Blair following the 7/7 bombings. However, Tooting MP Khan has stuck by his comments.

In a letter in the Guardian, Mahmood and Malik accuse Khan of displaying “self-serving revisionism” when he recently recounted a meeting with the then Prime Minister Blair following the 7/7 attacks.

Khan told the Guardian that Blair called in four Muslim MPs and told them that the attacks were their responsibility. The Mayoral candidate said that he called Blair out for this, saying “No, it’s not. Why have you called us in? I don’t blame you for the Ku Klux Klan. Why are you blaming me for the four bombers on 7/7?”

However, Mahmood and Malik, two of the other people present at this meeting (the third was Mohammad Sarwar who now lives in Pakistan, and who they say they consulted over this issue) say that “Khan’s account is at complete odds with our collective recollection.”

They say that the MP for Tooting “misrepresented” Blair’s words and that the meeting ended with “a unanimous agreement on the need for unity in the fight against terror and the crucial role for Muslims”. They said that “Khan’s depiction of his bravado is almost comical”.

Khan has responded to these comments defending his original position:

“I totally respect the passionate defence my fellow MPs have made of Tony Blair and the meeting we had with him.  However we will have to disagree on what Tony said as I have a very clear recollection.”