Update 2 | Tourism minister blasts WTO delegate Grima’s ‘appaling’ rant against London mayor

Tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis has described as “appalling” comments by Malta’s special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation Joe Grima against the newly elected mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

Joe Grima, a former Labour minister for industry, lashed out at Khan - London’s first Muslim mayor – today going as far as calling him a cockroach.

“The writing is on the wall. The cockroaches have invaded dear old London. Londoners thought they were buttering their bread by voting in an Islamic Mayor but with the butter they allowed in the cockroaches,” Grima wrote on Facebook.

When asked by MaltaToday, Zammit Lewis said he disagrees with Joe Grima’s comments about Sadiq Khan and that he finds them “simply appalling”.

Grima later took umbrage at MaltaToday's reporting, insisting that he never called Khan a cockroach but "that by voting for Khan, Londoners opened their doors to cockroaches".

Grima has repeatedly found himself in hot water as a result of comments made on Facebook, many a time offensive and racist.

The Labour mayor beat Tory Zac Goldsmith by 1,310,143 votes to 994,614, ending eight years of Conservative control of City Hall. According to the BBC, Khan’s victory gave him the largest personal mandate of any politician in UK history.

Khan is a former Labour MP and minister: he pledged to freeze fares on the capital's transport network and build more affordable housing, but also promising to champion business and cut taxes on enterprise.