Sadiq Khan is no stranger to complaining about central government grants which take “London for granted” while taking millions in taxpayer cash for granted to pay for his projects. On top of the £123 million he has spent on ludicrous woke projects, Guido can reveal Khan has splashed out £28.7 million on virtue signalling and self-promotion through Transport for London. He Khan’t seem to stop spending taxpayers’ cash…
Campaigns advertising TfL include ‘Champion Value’ Campaign, where Khan thought it would be a good idea to put prices on ads to encourage people to hop on the tube (when the drivers aren’t on strike). TfL have been begging for money since the pandemic, asking for and receiving a series of bailouts from the government, including a £250 million handout to avoid what TfL called a funding “cliff edge.” Before Christmas Khan even had the gall to say: “As the Government has only provided half of the capital funding that TfL needs, TfL has had to make difficult decision about their business plan“. The genius business plan focused on vanity projects…
Keith Prince, City Hall Tory transport spokesman tells Guido:
“TfL is constantly crying poor, running cap in hand to the Government seeking taxpayer bailouts at every opportunity. At the same time, TfL is wasting millions of pounds telling Londoners about its services and promoting virtue signalling campaigns on behalf of its chairman Sadiq Khan.”
Does Khan’s hypocrisy have a limit?
The City Hall Tories have released a new report detailing how Sadiq Khan has wasted £123 million of taxpayer’s money on woke and wasteful projects, from the cost of the Mayor’s Office rocketing by 57% since Boris’ time as London Mayor (probably because of his ballooning press staff), to spending over £1 million on “beach parties” in the Docklands. Particular highlights of how taxpayer cash has been spent include:
- £10 million to determine the colour of Met Police Officers’ personalities.
- £19,000 to encourage Londoners to “listen like bats” in a project to help people “rediscover and reimagine what it means to listen and hear the world around you.”
- £70,000 for a drag act called “Duckie Loves Fanny”.
- £30,000 on a bicycle ballet to “explore female liberation“.
- Vaginal moisturiser company Replens MD was awarded £500,000 of free advertising across the TfL network.
Emma Best, who wrote the report, told Guido:
“Sadiq Khan continues to waste millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. While Londoners struggle with the cost of living, Khan wastes millions on spin doctors, marketing and pointless initiatives. With the Mayor set to hike his share of council tax by 8.6% from April, it’s clear Londoners can’t afford another four more years of Sadiq Khan.”
UPDATE: No wonder Duckie got a £70,000 hand out, the co-founder of Duckie is none other than Amy Lamé, London’s “Night Czar”. She also got a salary pay rise from £35,000 to nearly £120,000, despite night-time venues closing and calling out a lack of support.
UPDATE II: It looks like the report missed an extra £500,000 worth of free advertising Khan gave to “Nubian Skin” in 2020 to advertise their “lingerie for the melanin-blessed”.
Guido encourages his readers to have a look at the full list of examples below:
Another blunder for Sadiq Khan as campaigning ramps up before the 2nd May mayoral election. After Guido pointed out his campaign website was using a photo of him restricted to press/media purposes it was removed and replaced. The website isn’t the only place they’ve put it…
Khan’s team has used the same restricted photo for their mass-printed campaign leaflets to shove through letterboxes throughout the capital. That clearly violates the photo’s usage rights. Guido has got in touch with London Labour to ask them when they will withdraw the campaign material. He hasn’t yet had a response…
It’s the 4th of January and the first Guido victory of the new year. Guido pointed out yesterday that Sadiq Khan’s newly redesigned campaign website breaks trademark rules with a “Sadiq for London“-branded bus, and that the prominent photo of Sadiq actually belongs to the GLA and can only be used for press/media. As it turns out, the website doesn’t pass accessibility requirements either…
It didn’t take long for Khan to remove both the photo of himself and the moving “Sadiq for London” bus, leaving the website looking more than a little bare. “Poof” goes all that cash paid to web designers…
Sadiq Khan has unveiled a new redesign of his campaign website. Apart from seeing the site claim one of Khan’s achievements is being “Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime“, Guido noticed a few rule violations when it comes to the imagery. For a start, the prominently displayed photo of Khan is owned by the GLA. The image is restricted to press/media usage only, so its inclusion on the campaigning website is in breach of the GLA’s use of resources policy. Could Khan’s team not find one flattering photo of their own?
Khan has also included a moving campaign bus at the bottom of the website featuring a TfL roundel. Transport for London is categorical that the roundel is trademarked and political actors can’t use it: “We will not grant a licence to third parties if our intellectual property is being used to draw an association with… Political parties and pressure groups“. Seeing as the website is a London Labour Party one, that appears to be a violation of the copyright rules. Guido has approached Khan’s team for comment…
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…
