By Kate Nicholson

Copyright huffingtonpost

Business secretary Peter Kyle tried to brush off Donald Trump’s remarkable claim that he got Sadiq Khan banned from attending any events which made up his state visit.

Shortly after leaving the UK on Thursday, the US president told reporters that he managed to prevent the Labour mayor of London from joining the lavish affair – mainly held in Windsor Castle – by saying: “I didn’t want him there.”

“I asked that he not be there,” he claimed. “I think the mayor of London Khan is among the worst mayors in the world, and we have some bad ones…”

Trump and Khan have a long-running history of criticising one another, with the mayor only this week accusing the president of “fanning the flames of the far-right” with his divisive politics.

But when broadcasters tried to pin down whether or not this was true during an interview with Peter Kyle, he just dodged the question.

Asked why the government felt it was necessary to “comply” with Trump’s request, Kyle laughed and said: “I literally had no idea about any of those sorts of things.”

He added: “It’s also been reported that Sadiq Khan didn’t ask to come in the first place.”

Presenter Calum Macdonald said: “Well, you don’t ask to come to a state banquet, do you? There’s a protocol to these things, you don’t just put your hand up and say I’ll go.”

Kyle replied: “You would have no idea how many people asked to come to this state banquet. This was the hottest ticket in town. This was the hottest ticket in town. And there were lots of people, including myself, that didn’t get my feet through that door in the evening.”

Macdonald asked again: “So did Sadiq Khan ask to go?”

The minister said: “No, no, he didn’t.”

Macdonald asked: “So he wasn’t invited to go?”

Kyle said: “He didn’t ask to go. Callum, I have no idea how these things…Believe me, the last thing I’m doing is finding out who did, didn’t, what the circumstances were.”

Macdonald reminded him: “Khan’s got the biggest electoral mandate in Europe.”

Kyle spoke over him, laughing again, saying: “It is so not important. It is so not important. Jobs are important, wealth creation is important, relations we have with people around the world are important.”

A source close to Khan told HuffPost UK: “Trump’s politics is one of fear and division.

“This includes talking down our great capital city. London is a global success story – it’s open, dynamic and safer than major US cities.

“Perhaps that’s one of the reasons record numbers of Americans are choosing to make London their home.”

HuffPost UK understands Khan made it clear weeks ago that he did not seek or expect an invite.