Zac Goldsmith should have rejected advice from his team to mount a "negative and divisive" campaign in London, Sadiq Khan has told BuzzFeed News.
Labour's London mayoral candidate said his Tory rival needed to "accept full responsibility" for a campaign that had tried to "pit communities against each other".
In an interview on Tuesday, with less than 48 hours to go until the polls open, Khan said he himself had rejected advice early in the race to focus on Goldsmith's wealthy background.
Tensions have been mounting between the pair as Goldsmith and David Cameron have repeatedly warned voters about Khan's alleged links with extremists. The culture secretary John Whittingdale has even branded Khan "quite dangerous".
The Labour MP for Tooting said he had been "thoroughly disappointed" with Goldsmith's campaign. "From the outset, his campaign’s been negative and divisive – so it’s not even as if the more they’ve seen the polls, the more negative they’ve been," he said.
"From the outset their game plan has been to try and pit communities against each other as a route to victory."
Some Tory members – increasingly uncomfortable with Team Goldsmith's tactics – have sought to shift the blame onto Goldsmith's advisers, with Baroness Sayeeda Warsi tweeting on Sunday: "This is not the Zac Goldsmith I know."
But Khan said: “The reason why Zac Goldsmith has to accept full responsibility for the campaign is because he’s the candidate. Often during a campaign you as a candidate are given advice – sometimes you’ll reject it, sometimes it doesn’t chime with what you think but you accept it because it’s the right advice."
Goldsmith's campaign is being advised by CTF Partners, the firm co-founded by Conservative election mastermind Lynton Crosby, although the Australian spin doctor is not officially at the helm.
Khan continued: "When he was approached by Crosby’s firm to do this kind of stuff he should have rejected that advice, not simply because he’s a decent guy but because that’s not the sort of mayor he wants to be. It really has now become a choice between unity and division."
Khan said that early in the campaign, he had been advised to exploit the difference between Goldsmith's wealthy upbringing and his own – but he had chosen not to.
“There were people giving that sort of advice early doors but neither of us is responsible for our background," he said. "I don’t see how it’s relevant what my bank account is and what his bank account is. I’ve wanted to have from day one a campaign where we’re both positive about our vision for this city."
Khan, a father of two daughters, said he worried about the impact of Goldsmith's campaign tactics on his family and friends. “Me personally, I’m fine, I’ve got a thick skin, I’m used to much worse," he said.
"But you worry about your family, you worry about your friends, you worry about friends of your children and stuff. I’m blessed because my children have got good mates and their school is a good school.
"But you worry about your mum, you worry about your brothers and your nephews and nieces and stuff, you worry about your in-laws. You worry about your mates because if you extend the analogy of guilty by association, them being my mates could be accused of all sorts of stuff."
He said relations between him and Goldsmith behind the scenes had become increasingly strained as the campaign had gone on.
“When the contest first began, we behaved very, very civil, friendly in the green room and then you’d go out and you’d have your match face on and afterwards you’re friendly again," he said.
"That happens in politics, it happens when you’re a lawyer, it happens when you’re a boxer, same thing. That was the first week or so and he’s hardly spoken to me during the contest. I’ve tried to be friendly with him but it’s his choice not mine."
Khan acknowledged he could lose support from some Jewish voters in London after the anti-Semitism row that rocked Labour and led to the suspensions of MP Naz Shah and ex-mayor Ken Livingstone.
“I think it’s not unreasonable for Londoners of Jewish faith to think the Labour party isn’t a place for them," he said. "I don’t think the disgust and sense of outrage should just be with the Jewish community, we’ve got to be united when it comes to unequivocally condemning something that’s wrong.
“If you see wrong you’ve got to call it out. I feel as strongly as calling out Ken Livingstone because his comments were appalling and disgusting as I do about some of the tactics around Zac Goldsmith."
Asked whether Livingstone should be expelled from the party, Khan said: "I was quite clear there’s got to be no place in our party for somebody with those views.
"It’s for the party to go through due process but it can’t be right that somebody has those views and repeats them again and again and again. We all make mistakes but if you make a mistake you apologise unequivocally and he’s chosen not to do that."
Most polls point towards Khan succeeding Boris Johnson as London's next mayor on Friday. Is he prepared for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to claim credit for his victory?
“Nobody with a straight face could say this wasn’t my campaign," Khan said. "The key thing is that Jeremy Corbyn isn’t on the ballot paper, nor is David Cameron, nor is Boris Johnson. The choice Londoners have is between Zac and me."