Given Sadiq Khan is raising his share of Londoners’ council tax up to a yearly total of nearly £500, you’d think City Hall would tighten its own purse strings to demonstrate at least a modicum of fiscal responsibility. Not quite…
Not only have the salaries of all but one of Sadiq’s deputy mayors risen to over £150,000, a closer look at City Hall’s latest spending returns and the gifts register for Khan and his pals tells the fuller story. It is – as always – nice work if you can get it…
GLA Expenses 2024-25
In the first year of his current term, Khan’s City Hall spent:
● £4,640,910 on printing. Yes, £4.6 million…
● £804,071 on hotel accommodation
● £65,476 on international, European, and domestic flights
● £56,555 on photography
● £48,101 on postage
A total of £5,615,113…
Gifts and Hospitality
In the first year of his current term, Khan himself accepted:
● 2 tickets to Liverpool v Crystal Palace – £450
● 2 tickets to the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium – £700
● 2 tickets to the Carabao Cup Final at Wembley Stadium – £550
● 2 tickets to Brentford v Liverpool – value not reported
● 2 tickets to Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool – £1,050
● 1 ticket to Fulham v Aston Villa – £1,500
● 1 ticket to Liverpool v Bournemouth – £450
● 6 tickets to Taylor Swift Concert at Wembley Stadium – £3,000
A total of £7,700, excluding the value of the Brentford v Liverpool game…
Meanwhile his aides have gratefully accepted a cool £10,967 in freebies, including to Glastonbury, the Brits, the Champions League Final, and UFC fight night. The full details are listed below. Remember, these freebies are registered because staff are supposedly attending in a work capacity…
Deputy Mayors and senior political advisers’ gifts and hospitality:
● Sarah Brown, Director of Communications:
– 3 Stevie Nicks tickets – £300 (accepted because “it was offered”)
● Ali Picton, Assistant Chief of Staff:
– 1 ticket to Glastonbury Festival 2024 with accommodation – £2,500
– British Fashion Awards – £385
– 1 ticket to Taylor Swift Concert at Wembley Stadium – £500
– 1 ticket to Taylor Swift Concert at Wembley Stadium – £194 (attended twice)
● Felicity Appleby, Political Director:
– 1 VIP ticket to UEFA Champions League Final with hospitality – £1,000
– 1 ticket to NFL game at Tottenham Stadium – £1,000
– 2 tickets to MLB London Series (Mets v Phillies) – £1,790
● David Bellamy, Chief of Staff:
– 1 ticket to Champions League Final – £610
● Nadeem Javaid MBE, International Director:
– 2 tickets to Queen’s Tennis Championship – £238
– 1 ticket to UFC Fight Night – £2,000
– 1 ticket to the Brit Awards – £300
● Kaya Comer-Schwartz, Deputy Mayor for Policing:
– 1 ticket to Arsenal vs Tottenham – £150 (lifelong Arsenal fan, attended to “discuss safety issues”)
Statement by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers Limited, following Harry’s loss in court today:
“Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail’s superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50 million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. Today’s verdict is not just a victory for Associated’s magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour’s Media Green Paper.”