Guido has been wondering for a while why Susan Hall hasn’t hired a campaign manager. Now the answer’s clear – CCHQ is going to take over the operation. Tory campaigners have now caught the scent of blood and think if they put some weight behind Hall she has a good chance of winning in May. Despite a recent poll from the Evening Standard reaffirming Khan’s supremacy, Tories are optimistic. CCHQ internal polling has Hall at a one-point lead. Internal polling is infamous for its unreliability…

CCHQ’s focus right now is on sprucing up Hall’s attack line delivery. Winning in London will be a massive morale boost for the Tories – it never made sense to take an arm’s length approach to the campaign. Guido hears the Tories are finishing up arrangements for the takeover, which won’t be too difficult seeing as Hall’s already set up in the basement of the Matthew Parker Street HQ. Ramping up…

Susan Hall managed to spice up the usually coma-inducing Mayor’s Question Time today with a newfound pizzazz. Khan’s classic technique of avoiding questions with righteous indignation didn’t quite work as Hall kept badgering him over ULEZ, the Met, failing nightlife, and his ongoing conduct investigation. Someone had their weetabix this morning…

Guido is glad to see Hall crystallising her key campaign points. London’s mayoral election in May is a petri dish for attack lines all round. The more, the merrier…

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has again defended the force’s response to Israel-Palestine protests across London this morning, after footage earlier this week showed an officer tearing down posters of kidnapped Israeli children “to avoid inflaming tensions“. Rowley, who is currently up in front of City Hall alongside Sadiq Khan, told Susan Hall this was an isolated incident in which the officer made a “pragmatic” judgement:

“There is a danger that people don’t read the facts of incidents… we are being very balanced at dealing with issues that are potentially inflammatory on a very focused basis… on these campaigning posters raising awareness of the kidnapped children, we are not as a general rule intervening in that… however, in one case when it was highlighted to us by a community member that they’d been placed on the shutters of a shop because there was a pro-Palestinian supporter who worked there, it had been placed on private premises and it was seen to be potentially inflammatory…”

He added the Met also removed Palestinian flags from a Jewish memorial earlier in the week, and it is “not accurate” to suggest the force is biased. They’re just being “pragmatic”…

Susan Hall has blasted the Sadiq Khan on his ULEZ scheme pocketing around £715,000 a day from motorists. A report by Transport for London revealed around 57,200 drivers cough up the £12.50 charge a day, resulting in the expansion cashing in £52 million already. Last year, ULEZ drove up £224 million in tax revenue, and that was before the expansion…

Susan Hall tells Guido:

“It speaks volumes that Sadiq Khan is unwilling to provide any evidence that the air quality has improved until after the Mayoral election. His ULEZ expansion is nothing but a tax grab, taking over £52 million already from those who cannot afford to upgrade their vehicles. As Mayor, I will stop the ULEZ expansion on day one.”

The Uxbridge by-election proved putting the brakes on ULEZ might be a vote winner. Now it’s really hitting motorists in their wallets… 

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…