By Joshua Cheetham

During his speech at the UN General Assembly, President Donald Trump singled out London Mayor Sadiq Khan, claiming: "I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor – terrible, terrible mayor. Now they want to go to Sharia law."

If Trump is implying here that London - under Khan - is moving its legal system to Sharia law, then this is false.

There have been false claims about the implementation of Sharia law in London circulating for years on social media.

In 2020, several posts on Facebook showed an image of Khan with a quote saying: "We are trialling [Sharia] law in three of London's boroughs right now. We will then roll it out in the remaining thirty next year."

At the time, the mayor’s office told Reuters that this quote - which misspelled the word Sharia - was fabricated.

In response to Trump’s comment at the UN, UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting posted on X: "Sadiq Khan is not trying to impose Sharia Law on London."

A spokesperson for Khan told the BBC: "We are not going to dignify his appalling and bigoted comments with a response."

Sharia law is an Islamic legal system and Sharia councils do exist in the UK – there were an estimated 85 across the UK in 2009, according to one think tank.

Most of their work deals with religious marriage arbitration and they may also rule on financial matters but the UK government has been clear that their rulings are "not legally binding".

"Ultimately, the only places in our country that deliver legally...