Farage has just announced he will be supporting Laurence Fox for mayor of London, following the formal announcement of the Reform/Reclaim pact. Despite Fox spelling the pact out to Guido three weeks ago…
Announcing his support, Farage says:
“It feels highly appropriate that on the eve of St George’s Day, a new patriotic alliance between Reform UK and the Reclaim Party is being announced. As the Mayor of London and London Assembly elections draw closer, Richard Tice’s Reform UK will endorse mayoral candidate Laurence Fox; in return, Fox’s Reclaim Party will back Reform UK’s candidates on the London Assembly list. As the aims and objectives of the two men are so similar, this is the grown-up thing to do and I support it.”
“With the big Brexit battle now over, the fight is about what kind of country people want to live in: a free nation or a semi-authoritarian regime? This debate needs to happen very quickly. I wish Laurence Fox and Richard Tice all the very best.”
Guido wouldn’t be surprised to see this news dominate Twitter for the remainder of the day…
Four hours after Guido was promised a full policy costing from Laurence Fox, it was finally sent through. A few minutes’ study made it clear the costings are built on less-than-solid ground. Far from a fully-costed manifesto, the details amounted to 350 words specifically on the “free tube and bus fares for six months” policy. On this, Fox puts the figure at an unbelievably low £500,000 in total.
This, he claims – both in the document and during Guido’s interview – is from TfL’s and the Mayor’s own figure, which he says put the total cost at £20 million per week. Two immediate problems:
Oddly, a much more correct TfL revenue figure does appear in a separate document released by Team Fox this afternoon.
Most perplexing is the campaign’s decision to base costings on current passenger numbers, even though they’re rock bottom due to lockdown; and the aim of the policy is to encourage Londoners back onto public transport, which would then render the costings irrelevant.
It’s not the first time Fox has got his figures startlingly off. Last week he claimed Sadiq’s woke statue review was costing £100 million – off from the true figure of £1 million. Fox has more in common with Diane Abbott than you might think. As we go to pixel today, the day of his “manifesto launch”, no one has yet to see a manifesto…
Laurence Fox was back in Westminster this morning to launch his manifesto. His speech covered a surprisingly wide-ranging policy platform that goes well beyond a focus on the culture war, including policies on re-opening Hammersmith Bridge and reforming the greenbelt. Laurence spoke to Guido after his speech under the shadow of Churchill’s statue, asking about his plans to scrap tube and bus fares for six months and how that would affect TfL’s already empty coffers.
Fox promised Guido the policies are fully costed, and a document would be sent to him alongside the manifesto:
“We’ve got a very detailed costing of all the policicies which I can provide to you straight away after this if you like.”
Broken promise number one; bizarrely for a manifesto launch, we’re three hours down the road and yet to receive anything other than the two-page bullet point pamphlet handed out at the time…
Guido was quite confused to see Fox’s list of promises lead with “No COVID passports or mask mandates” – powers the Mayor of London doesn’t enjoy. Like Sadiq Khan’s weed and rent controls promise, it seems Laurence is focusing on using the role of mayor to lobby the government for change rather implement reforms that would be within his power: a tactic confirmed by Richard Tice after the event. Fox also deferred to Sadiq Khan’s costings when asked about his TfL fares abolition policy. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…
Asked about this morning’s YouGov poll putting Fox on just 4%, he responded:
“I’d love 4%, I got onto a poll, it’s brilliant. It’s a stepping stone to greatness!”
We shall see…
Sadiq Khan continues to be less-than-subtle in signalling his intention to copy Boris and make the leap from City Hall to No. 10. Today he tried imitating Boris’s famous over-the-head trickshot. The shot was not a long shot by any means, taken in a children’s playground, the hoop was directly 2 feet above Sadiq. Low risk, low reward. Guido reckons Boris’s longshot was a slam dunk by comparison…
At the weekend it was revealed that Sadiq Khan’s top aide, Jack Stenner, broke lockdown rules by staying with his parents over the Easter weekend – ignoring the government’s ‘keep outside while meeting up’ rule. Responding to the story, Sadiq offered a less-than-supportive response, saying he was “deeply disappointed” in his director of political and public affairs. If only he’d kept his family affairs out in public he wouldn’t have got in this political mess…
While readers shouldn’t hold their breath any repercussions from Stenner’s boss (he’s announced he’s departing City Hall anyway after the election), not only is this the second time Stenner’s broken the rules, it’s the second time Sadiq’s failed to offer any defence.
In October Stenner travelled to the USA, taking up working for the mayor from San Francisco just three days a week. Since his return, both the Mayor and the GLA have refused to explain how he was able to visit the US – given that since the 16th March 2020 it’s not been possible for British nationals to enter the USA if they’ve been in the UK, Ireland, the Schengen zone and many other countries within the previous 14 days. London was also Tier 2 when he left.
It’s therefore understandable why a furious City Hall source told the Sun:
“Jack has made an absolute mockery of lockdown rules and everyone who has diligently followed them…”
“He seems to think there’s one rule for the rich and powerful and another for the plebs.”
Perhaps it’s time for a rose garden press conference from City Hall…
It’s fairly certain that – bar an extraordinary event – Sadiq Khan will be re-elected on 6th May. It is also overwhelmingly likely that in a relatively distant second place will come Conservative Shaun Bailey. What is less clear, however, is who will achieve the coveted third place. Who will be the least minor minor party? Guido has compiled a list of all the declared candidates:
Minor parties:
Independents:
Each candidate is required to stump up a £10,000 deposit in order to stand – a sum that will only be returned if the candidate achieves over 5% of the vote. Last time the only parties to retain their deposits were Labour, the Tories, and the Greens. This year’s 17 minor candidates have so far contributed £170,000 to City Hall…
