Last night, ITV London held a debate with the candidates for London Mayor. Our Rob Blackie took part and challenged incumbent Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan on his record on tackling crime. He also emphasised that the Conservatives could not win.
You can watch the whole debate here and an extra comment from Rob Blackie here.
At one point, Rob asked Sadiq Khan “Aren’t you ashamed?” at the collapse in the number of sexual offenders being caught.
Rob also called the Mayor out for undermining Transport for London’s finances with election gimmicks, benefitting tourists, pledging to halt bus cuts and get the tube back on track instead.
After the debate, Rob said:
It is clear that Sadiq Khan doesn’t want to fight this campaign on his record. That’s because he has failed to deliver. He doesn’t deserve a third term.
This is no clearer than on his record on crime. We are catching sexual offenders half as often as we did at the start of his time in office. That is shameful.
The Conservatives are in freefall in London and their candidate offered nothing in the debate. The Liberal Democrats stand ready to offer a real, liberal challenge to the Mayor.
2 Comments
This Mayor and Assembly have been in place since 2000 and it would be far better to go back to the old GLC model in place from 1965-86 as long as it is elected by STV with a Leader chosen by the largest party group. We don’t need this “Mayor” role really and the chances of changing the person holding the role are very remote. Don;t want Hall or Khan at all.
It would be refreshing if candidates in all political parties (including the Lib Dems) could come up with some creative practical policies of benefit to the population of London instead of ‘slamming’ the alleged failures of their political opponents.