Good news for the London Tories this week as another poll out today by JL Partners puts her at 32% vs Khan’s 35%. It’s an outer vs inner London split, obviously driven by opposition to the expansion of the ULEZ tax. 3-point leads can be elusive…

Meanwhile Labour cap-in-hand donation emails are clamouring about the”shocking new poll” from the Times this month which “has the Tories just *one percent* behind Labour in London.. We’re neck-and-neck”. Snubbed by Tory party leadership, a buoyant Susan Hall said on Nick Ferrari’s LBC call-in this morning that her party conference speaking slot snub “doesn’t bother me at all“. All Susan needs now is for Jezza to run…

Susan Hall has blasted Sadiq Khan on his new London Policing Board and the leftie allies he’s appointed to join. The board aims to scrutinise the urgent reform of the Met. Apparently it’s composed of people with a “wide range of professional skills”, though it appears they mainly specialise in criticising the Tories…

Members include Labour activist Andrea Simon and multiple pen pusher pals. One appointee, Sayce Holmes-Lewis, called to “overthrow the government with force“, characterising it as a “fascist dictatorship“. He also believes we should not support Ukraine in defending itself against Russia’s invasion because the UK government has ‘lied.‘

Hall didn’t hold back:

“Sadiq Khan has nobbled the policing board, adding in some of his Labour activist friends and excluding anyone who might cause him problems. These should have been appointed by an independent panel, not Sadiq Khan’s deputies and chief of staff. He is clearly shutting down scrutiny of the Met Police before the election, because he is embarrassed by his failures over the last seven and a half years. As Mayor I will embrace scrutiny, not run from it.”

CCHQ should give her more air time…

Khan’s got a new line on ULEZ which is sure to buoy the spirits of outer London builders and carers. After jetting into New York for a shoulder-rubbing climate conference, he said at a business conference today that ULEZ was “the classic best ever two-for-one offer you will ever receive.” Khan, helpful as ever, explained at the Concordia business summit:

“The same things that cause climate change, cause air pollution… Nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and carbon emissions. If you deal with one, you deal with the other.”

It’s a shame that the official independent assessment by Jacobs concluded the scheme would result in a -1% average exposure to nitrogen oxide and “negligible reductions (-0.1%) in average exposure to PM2.5“. Speaking of particulate matter, any chance of dealing with the toxic air on the Tube?

The good news is Khan is giving a speech at the UN’s Climate Ambition Summit tomorrow. He’s the only UK politician invited, which he will be pleased to know. There’s plenty to talk about: according to Atmosfair, jetting from London to New York and back pumps out roughly 986kg of CO2 per passenger. In total, his team will rack up a whopping 41,412 air miles. That’s a lot of hot air…

Last week’s Redfield and Wilton polling for Times Radio showed Jeremy Corbyn could win a whopping 15% of the vote in the London Mayoral Election. If he stood, he’d come in third, denying Sadiq a third term and handing victory to Susan Hall and the Conservatives. Guido has already endorsed Jezza – #Tories4Corbyn is back – and wants him to give it a go. While he thinks it over, Guido’s News Editor Adam Cherry hit the streets of London this morning to find out if voters want Jeremy to enter the race as much as the Tories…

Sadiq Khan is being investigated for a possible breach of the City Hall code of conduct relating to comments prior to the ULEZ expansion. Tory member of the London Assembly Nick Rogers accused Kahn of “knowingly [making] false and dishonest statements” about his knowledge of results from a TfL consultation that showed two-thirds of respondents were opposed to the expansion. Is the TfL team literally making up support for the ULEZ expansion now?

Khan is also being investigated for his response to hecklers at a People’s Question Time meeting in Ealing, where he said “What I find unacceptable is some of those who’ve got legitimate objections [about ULEZ] joining hands with some of those outside, who are part of a far-Right group.” This quickly prompted members of the audience to shout back “normal people are not right wing”. 

The Greater London Authority’s monitoring officer, Rory McKenna, appointed an independent investigator to look into the complaints. Khan he get out of this one?

Recent polling by Redfield and Wilton Strategies has blown the London Mayoral race wide open. What was once seen as a foregone conclusion for Sadiq is now anyone’s game: if Jezza gives it a go, YouGov say he’ll get at least 15% of the vote, denying Khan a third term. While Corbyn hasn’t yet committed to a run, Guido thinks London needs strong leadership, and a voice for underrepresented communities. Someone with the skills and experience necessary to revive the city. Jeremy Corbyn is the perfect person to ensure Susan Hall does that, so for that reason Guido is relaunching #Tories4Corbyn.

This is not the first time Guido has thrown his full support behind Jeremy’s campaign. We did the same in 2015, with great success. We even held a victory party…

Do your duty, Jeremy. Guido will back you again…