US President Donald Trump will largely avoid London during his state visit. And that's fine by the city's mayor.

Sadiq Khan wrote in The Guardian newspaper that Trump and his allies have helped “fan the flames of divisive, far-right politics around the world.”

He said Trump's mass deportations and sending troops to US cities are moves “straight out of the autocrat's playbook.”

Ahead of a planned protest on Wednesday against the president's visit, Khan wrote: “I'm sure many Londoners will speak up to tell President Trump and his followers that we cannot be divided by those who seek to sow fear.”

Khan, a member of the governing Labour Party who has been London mayor since 2016, has traded criticism with Trump since the president's campaign pledge in 2015 to ban Muslims from entering the US.

In July the president said Khan has “done a terrible job” and is a “nasty person.”