Guido revealed a recording earlier today of Khan’s Deputy Mayor for Business, Howard Dawber, hosting a meeting at City Hall urging the room to come out and help people vote for Labour. Now, Neil Garratt – group leader of the City Hall Conservatives – has written to the GLA to call for an investigation into the incident. Bad timing for Khan…
The potential breach of GLA’s Guidance on Political Restriction wasn’t the only thing on the Tories’ mind. They also point out that Dawber may have breached the GLA Use of Resource guidance, as the meeting appeared to be political, having been chaired on behalf of SME4Labour. The guidance clearly states that GLA facilities and funds should not be used for “party political activity and electoral campaigning”. Double trouble for Dawber…
Read the letter in full below:
Amy Lamé, London’s six-figure salary “Night Czar”, known for being open about her lefty views in the past, has been caught out parroting more anti-conservative propaganda. Lamé holds a politically restricted post as a GLA staff member, which means she can’t advocate for a political candidate (such as Sadiq Khan). Here’s a tweet she posted earlier this month. Co-conspirators can decide whether or not this is apolitical or not…
Liberal values are under threat this election year in a way they haven’t been for decades. It is entirely possible we could see Donald Trump in the White House, Suella Braverman in Number 10, and Susan Hall in City Hall.
Register to VOTE here ⏩ https://t.co/ENoIVvm1RN
— Amy Lamé (@amylame) February 5, 2024
Intriguingly, it is word-for-word the same quote Khan told the i earlier this month. She’s been under fire for her role recently. Yesterday she tried to defend herself by referring to two night club ‘success stories’ – which have been shut down. Perhaps she should spend more time on her actual job rather than political campaigning. Though no doubt her Khan handing her a pay-rise from £35,000 to nearly £120,000 may have have some sway…
The London Assembly has just adopted some key changes to its code of conduct to make clear elected members’ responsibilities to tell the truth. The new code, which comes into effect in May, specifies that the seven Nolan Principles of Public Life are incorporated officially for the first time. This includes the requirement that Khan be truthful. A useful measure for in case Khan holds his position come the elections…
Khan’s had a bit of trouble with the truth previously. Guido recalls his obfuscation over £30 million given to tube strikers, his dodgy statements on the amount saved by building relocations, suspect statements over whether he knew about Crossrail delays, putting out “misleading” ULEZ advertisements, and being accused of lying about infrastructure projects by his own party. The GLA is clearly hoping the new code keeps Khan in check…
Tory candidate for mayor Susan Hall doesn’t think the code will make much difference when it comes to Khan. She tells Guido: “Sadiq Khan has misled us before and he’ll do it again, no matter what the code of conduct says. If he wins again after eight years of failure, he will keep on arrogantly ignoring Londoners for another four. As Mayor, I will listen to Londoners, get a grip of crime and scrap the ULEZ expansion on day one.” Dividing lines…
The Greater London Authority have revealed they spent a whopping £219,143 on Khan’s cringeworthy “Maaate” campaign last year. The campaign sought to end domestic violence with an interactive video, where apparently saying a disapproving “maaate” to a sexist friend will magically banish sexism and misogyny from the capital forever. The esteemed advertising agency Ogilvy was paid £80,000 for the production of the campaign, which the London Mayoralty claim generated over £1.5 million value-in-kind from media spaces and content creation by influencers. Quite how they arrived at that figure is unknown…
In a response to an FOI request, the GLA was clearly embarrassed about the amount spent on the highly criticised campaign, pointing to the Home Office’s similar campaign, which has a projected budget of £8 million. Guido’s not sure a nation wide campaign involving online tools to report acts of domestic violence and sexism is comparable to the short interactive video…
A London-wide manhunt is currently underway for a terror suspect, and Met Commissioner Mark Rowley took it as the perfect opportunity to admit plans to dodge scrutiny from elected representatives. Speaking to the Greater London Authority, Rowley said “I do question the amount of these appearances”, referring to their regular Q&A sessions. Rowley’s excuse is that his time for scrutiny will be taken up by for the new policing board – comprised of Sadiq and his bureaucratic appointees. The commissioner said:
“I do question the amount of these appearances, in terms of the Q&A sessions… and so we’re going to need to look at that balance as we see the final details of the frequency of meetings et cetera. But it may well mean end up in fewer of these appearances from myself and the senior team”
He’s looking for a get out jail free card…
In response, one Senior London assembly member didn’t hold back:
“Democratic oversight of the Met Police died before our eyes… Senior Met officers have been scrutinised every fortnight of the year by the Assembly with a monthly public meeting with the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner. My confidence in the Met, like many Londoners, has died.”
Careful. Wouldn’t want to give the Met another case of “threatening and abusive words” to investigate.
A tough watch from the Greater London Assembly yesterday, with Sadiq repeatedly dodging simple questions over the impact of his wallet-raiding ULEZ expansion, and refusing to admit that he simply couldn’t provide the data that would support his own plan. Never mind the stats, his ‘experience’ tells him he’s right…
Asked multiple times by GLA Conservative Deputy Leader to provide a source for his claim that “the poorest in London do not own cars” – a reasonable question, given everyone in Greater London will soon be charged £12.50 just to switch on their engines – Sadiq threw the question back over and over again, eventually insisting Fortune should “knock on a few more doors” and speak to more Londoners. Presumably they’ll have the data he’s looking for.
Expanding the ULEZ to the whole of Greater London will inevitably affect thousands of middle and lower income households, and Sadiq knows it. Of course, rate of car access rises with incomes, yet even around half of households on £20,000 a year have access. Sadiq forgets that the likes of bus drivers and NHS workers have cars out of necessity, because public transport isn’t there at the times needed for shift-workers. Maybe this is the data Sadiq couldn’t remember:
Inevitably those living in outer London will be disproportionately affected by this, even on lower incomes. At least the air will be slightly cleaner…
