No, London mayor didn’t urge Brits to learn Arabic

The Claim

On November 6, Kelvin Mackenzie, former editor of The Sun, a well-known British tabloid, published a post on X (formerly Twitter), claiming that London Mayor Sadiq Khan urged his constituents to learn Arabic to maintain harmony with immigrants in England.

The claim has been widely shared on Facebook, and one of these posts amassed over 3,300 views. A similar claim was also circulated in 2020. An archive version of the post can be viewed here. In most iterations, the claim was accompanied by expletives directed toward Khan, written in faux-Arabic style font. 

However, we found that Khan never made such a claim. 

In Fact

Logically Facts found no evidence that Khan had said any such phrase or similar statement, nor did the claim appear to be taken out of context. However, in 2017, he publicly urged immigrants to learn English. He said, “My message is very simple, rather than translating documents into a different language, I would rather get people to learn English. Proverb for you: give someone a fish, feed them for a day. Teach them how to fish, feed them for life. Learn English, and you’re made for life.”

We contacted the mayor’s office for comment, and they told us that these “posts are nonsense. The mayor has never said that.” 

Although born in England, Khan has Pakistani roots, where the native language is Urdu, not Arabic.

The verdict

The claim circulating online is false. Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, never urged his constituents to learn Arabic to get along with immigrants.