Sadiq Khan’s industrial PR operation has now turned its attention to the upcoming flu season, telling Londoners if they’re entitled to a jab they can get one free at their local pharmacy. Accompanying the release was a snap of Sadiq supposedly receiving a vaccine shot of his own; unfortunately showing the fake set up of the snap was the needle clearly still in its plastic cap, and the doctor seemingly attempting to deliver the jab through Khan’s shirt. Much like Sadiq’s mayoral PR, this shot is blunt and fake…
Shaun Bailey is getting a round of coverage this morning for his plan to exhort companies to drug test employees. He stresses the tests will be anonymised. Though given the Mayor has no power to enforce testing, it seems even less likely that the mayor will be able to enforce anonymisation. Shaun should set an example and “be the change he wants to see”. CCHQ could test all the boys and girls at Tory HQ, from chairman Ben Elliot down to the interns. Then publish the results…
It is an eye-catching policy proposal, it is also the wrong policy. It will tangle firms in extra costs, the bureaucracy of testing and possible legal challenges. The reason there are violent criminal turf wars is because the product is illegal. Decriminalise the product and you remove criminals from the supply chain. Regulate supply and you can treat addicts as a health problem, not a judicial criminal problem, clogging up the courts, prisons and wasting police resources. If cocaine was good enough for Queen Victoria to legally buy from her West End pharmacist, it is good enough for the rest of us…
After a term as Mayor of London entirely characterised by party political point-scoring, Sadiq has now written to Tory candidate Shaun Bailey with an “urgent request” to join him in “standing up for London by putting pressure on the Government not to force another era of austerity on our police and preventative services.” The same Sadiq who in June began threatening to cut 3,600 police officers from the streets…
The letter goes onto presume that as a former Crime Adviser in No. 10 when the Government first implemented austerity, “you must be all too aware of the terrible consequences of the last decade of cuts”. Those terrible consequences consisting of a significant overall reduction in the crime rate…
Responding to Sadiq’s begging letter, Shaun Bailey tells Guido:
Khan wants to take the politics out of policing. And he’s right.
The only problem is his track record. Sadiq Khan has played politics with the police from day one. And now he wants to defund the police, something I refuse to even discuss.
Instead of taking a symbolic and meaningless pay cut, the Mayor should cut waste from City Hall. Like the £760k he spent on beach parties. Or the 26% increase in his PR budget.
Sadiq knows Bailey will never sign up to this absurd pact – watch him now accuse the Tory candidate of being the one playing party politics…
Read Sadiq’s letter in full below:
LibDem London Mayoral candidate Siobhan Benita has become the second candidate to throw in the towel, following Rory Stewart bowing out in May. In a video posted on social media this morning, Siobhan explains “unfortunately with the delay due to the pandemic, I’m simply not able to commit to another full year of campaigning”. It was announced in March that the election would be postponed until May 2021…
Benita previously stood as an independent in 2012, placing fifth with 3.8% of the votes. The Liberal Democrats will be selecting a new candidate in due course. They have a number of London-based former candidates who are rumoured to be happy to take on more work and keen to return to the spotlight…
In her independent campaign, Benita stood as “the only candidate that is supporting a third runway at Heathrow“. As a Liberal Democrat, she u-turned on her stance in order to oppose airport expansion. Now she’s u-turned on standing at all…
With City Hall in financial chaos and the mayor threatening to cut 3,600 police amid riots, Shaun Bailey has less than a year to sort out his public image to pose a proper challenge to Sadiq. Guido understands amidst staff turnover, the Tories’ mayoral campaign has brought in new comms outfit 5654 and company partner James Starkie to refocus the campaign. Starkie recently left government after working as chief of staff to Priti Patel, previously of Dominic Raab’s leadership campaign…
5654 – who proclaim specialisation in helping clients “to earn a reputation” – have been brought in by campaign director Ben Mallet, himself only poached in February as part of a Team Shaun top team overhaul. The campaign will have to scoop up almost all of Rory’s abandoned supporters to have a hope of catching up with Sadiq…
Sadiq Khan has today threatened police cuts of almost £110 million – and £290 million in transport cuts – if the government refuses to cough up for the £500 million City Hall Funding black hole Khan now presides over. Based on the Labour party’s own election figures, £110 million is the cost of 3,600 officers’ wages…
Khan announced the cuts to capital law and order in the wake of two nights of police attacks – the first in Brixton, the latter in Notting Hill – by out-of-control party-goers, which have resulted in 22 police injuries.
Khan knows he could never cut the police in the run up to an election year – this smacks of a blatant attempt to blackmail extra funds from the government. One silver lining of his proposed spending plans are £59 million earmarked cuts to City Hall – reversing the 82% staffing cost rise seen under Sadiq…
