The Times of London appears to have been duped into running a fabricated story. The article featured a former New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, criticizing current mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani — except he says he never spoke with the newspaper.

“I want to be 100% clear: The story in the Times of London is entirely false and fabricated. It was just brought to my attention and I’m appalled,” Mr. de Blasio said in a post on X, along with a link to the Times story which has since been removed from the site. “I never spoke to that reporter and never said those things. Those quotes aren’t mine, don’t reflect my views.”

A short while later, Mr. de Blasio demanded in another post on X that the Times pull the story “immediately.”

“It is an absolute violation of journalistic ethics. The truth is I fully support @ZohranKMamdani and believe his vision is both necessary and achievable,” he said.

The Times of London was forced to oblige and removed the article two hours after it was posted. They also issued an apology to the former mayor.

“The Times has apologised to Bill de Blasio and removed the article immediately after discovering that our reporter had been misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.

Mr. de Blasio endorsed Mr. Mamdani in a September op-ed in the New York Daily News, praising him for “relentlessly challenging the status quo of deepening unaffordability,” and backed the New York State Assembly member’s calls for “bold sweeping action”— including a rent freeze, universal childcare for children up to age 5, and free city buses.

“Yet, though many New Yorkers agree with him — many others are skeptical. Still others have lost faith in the city government’s ability to not only talk but deliver. They want to know one fundamental truth: can it be done?” he said. 

“I can say definitely — and I know better than anyone — that the answer is yes.”