10 reasons why I want to Get Khan Out

Tomorrow Sadiq Khan could be voted in as Mayor of London for a third time. Perish the thought!

With the Mayoral election tomorrow, I couldn’t help myself from doing a round up of the reasons why I (surprise surprise) will not be voting for Sadiq Khan. I’ve tried to be brief, but it has got to almost 3,000 words!

Without further ado, here are 10 top reasons:

Knife crime - and crime generally

It goes without saying that knife crime and all types of crime have risen exponentially under Khan (who, it’s sometimes forgotten, “is responsible for the totality of policing in the capital.”)

It’s now “the norm” to see theft in a supermarket or something worse.

But Khan doesn’t seem to care, and even joked about machetes last week in a panel with Susan Hall, telling her that she should stop watching The Wire. Hilarious!

Khan’s acolytes often argue that he doesn’t have enough funds to fight crime because of the beastly Conservative Party. But it’s nonsense when you see at the amount he wastes on pet projects, such as renaming stops on the London overground - at a cost of £6.3 million.

Disabled people losing access to transport

Khan’s expenditure on overground lines is even more appalling given that disabled people’s access in London has become *WORSE* since he became Mayor.

It was never brilliant to begin with. Just over a third of tube stops have step-free access - aka, can be used by those in wheelchairs/ with prams/ other mobility needs (and I’m told that’s a generous estimate, as some still have escalators to climb after you’ve used a lift). Imagine if Khan had spent £6.3 million towards changing that.

NFBUK’s account - where accessibility issues are frequently highlighted

Shockingly, Khan’s administration has actually reduced disabled people’s independence. Take the proliferation of floating bus stops. Some reading may not even know what they are - proving the point of how little attention they receive from the media, despite having a huge impact on others’ lives.

Disabled people have said *for years* that these make travel much more dangerous. Yet Khan and his Walking and Cycling Commissioner, Will Norman, have blanked them.

Here’s Norman ignoring blind campaigners below (picture taken in 2019; they have been raising awareness of mobility issues for even longer than this!):

A more in-depth piece I have written about this issue for The Critic, here.

And a quote below from my recent Telegraph piece:

Hyacinth Malcolm, a campaigner for the National Federation for the Blind UK (NFBUK), told The Telegraph: “Our current mayor just isn’t listening.

“Does a blind or disabled person have to be killed before they do anything? He just doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to understand.”

She added: “The buses are the most accessible way for us to travel. We can’t do it any more.”

Rates for mates

Will Norman (who I’ve written more about here), has a salary of £110,000-£114,999 pa - which brings me onto another feature of Khan’s London: his inside team of 21 people very-well-paid people you’ve never heard of, including three “Mayoral Directors”. Full list here with some examples below:

Sophie Linden
Deputy Mayor, Policing and Crime
Salary: £132,664 per year

Clearly doing a great job…

Seb Dance
Deputy Mayor, Transport and Deputy Chair, Transport for London
Salary: £141,406

Justine Simons, OBE
Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries
Salary: £141,406

And our favourite, the Night Czar, who falls under “Special Appointments”:

War on cars

I’ve written so much on this topic that I hope you’ll forgive me if I paste a selection below of articles and a quote below. Tbh I think I’d find it hard to summarise in a paragraph how devastating anti-car measures have been for Londoners.

Since 2020, things have become much worse for… traders, with councils across the UK stepping up their efforts to ban cars, increasing anti-traffic schemes, including ULEZ (Ultra-Low Emission Zones), in spite of people continuing to make their objections known. Opponents of traffic reduction schemes are not conspiracy theorists or worse — self-employed couriers/ plumbers/ decorators, for instance, are some of the biggest economic victims, losing money each day because LTNs elongate their journeys, reducing the number of jobs they can carry out. Some traders have spent lots of money on upgrading their car to electric to be ULEZ compliant, only to find out that the car is now simply banned from certain routes. There’s also the disabled, vulnerable and elderly to consider - “The war on cars”, The Critic

2022: The Daily Express:

• Car-bashing Sadiq is set to make cost of living crisis worse

2023: The Critic:

• Do journalists know what matters?

Authoritarian

Khan hates having to listen to Londoners’ concerns about ULEZ (democracy, ey!) - which they simply had imposed on them - so he tries to clamp down people’s right to free speech and their use of democratic channels.

Recently he ordered police to close down a ULEZ protest of around 100 people (a size that pales in comparison next to weekly pro-Palestine protests) - as it was apparently near his home.

But there was doubt cast on how accurate this was. One protestor said: “We’re not causing anyone alarm and distress. We’re just standing round making our message heard. We’re not going anywhere near Sadiq’s house.”

A number of demonstrators were pinned to the ground and issued with a S42 dispersal order by police. Five were arrested.

It’s worth saying that London bureaucrats do sometimes appear to exaggerate the “threat” of activists whose opinions they don’t want to hear.

For instance, Haringey Council mysteriously cancelled a discussion about LTNs at short notice - because of “disruption by a small group of protestors”.

Council leader Peray Ahmet said at the time: “It was not an easy decision to cancel the meeting, but we had to protect the safety of our councillors, council officers and other members of the public."

Haringey protestors

But “others denied there was disruption and suggested the meeting could have gone ahead as planned.”

By this point residents had submitted three petitions calling for the removal of LTNs. How can democracy function when people are no-platformed in this way by elected representatives?

Another version of “no-platforming” took place last year when a “furious lorry driver” - according to ITV - was escorted out from City Hall by a security officer after she “heckled” (another description from ITV) Khan over the ULEZ expansion plan. Angie Donnelly is her name (below):

Here’s what she said to Khan (or “heckled”, depending on your interpretation of events):

"You’ve got people struggling down in Essex, that can’t feed their kids- You should put the ULEZ in Essex on hold. Let people get back on their feet, let people get a life, let people get over the pandemic."

Donnelly - like many others - was clearly fed up of trying to get her message through as the Mayor and elected representatives never want to hear it. Hence coming to the event in the first place. In general, no one ever talks about the suppressive tactics from Khan’s administration that lead voters to “heckle”, protest or, at the worst, become ULEZ “Blade Runners”. Reactions have escalated in line with democratic channels being shut down.

At worse, Khan will smear opponents to stifle debate; case in point, his appearance in March last year at People's Question Time in Ealing:

He said of ULEZ opponents:

What I find unacceptable is some of those who've got legitimate objections [about ULEZ] joining hands with some of those outside, who are part of a far-right group."

Let's be frank, let's call a spade a spade. Some of those outside are part of the far right. Some are Covid deniers, some are vaccine deniers and some are Tories.

Punishes the good, ignores the bad

ULEZ highlights that, when they want to, Khan and his administration can enforce rules. In its first month, the ULEZ expansion raises £26 million as more than 57,000 vehicles a day were hit with charges.

But if you steal from a supermarket, nothing is likely to happen. The police rarely come any more because of the paperwork.

System failures

ULEZ enforcers are so desperate to fine Londoners that they’ve even come for innocent people. The Telegraph covers some ridiculous examples. For instance, one man handed a fine despite donating his car to the Ukraine war effort last summer.

In The Sun last year I wrote about Christopher Oxenham, who was fined 14 times despite never going into a ULEZ zone.

Two-tier policing

Khan’s double standards around policing ULEZ transgressions versus actual crime is analogous to his two-tiered attitude to protests.

Whether you can kick off in London is very much contingent upon Khan’s opinions, which he doesn't hide. In July 2023 he said:

I think that Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil are really important pressure groups trying to put power on those who have power and influence.

I fully support the right to protest.

It’s really important to recognise the joy of a democracy is protest.

But then… let’s look at the St. George’s Day march in Whitehall. I’m not here to defend or promote it. Like others I actually don’t really know what happened; my impression is that there was a mixture of people who are proud of England and worried about the continuity of British culture, and then those at the extreme end of the spectrum.

The first thing I heard about it was that “clashes had taken place” - due to “Far Right” protestors attending. Clearly, the police were told to get rid of them. It showed that the Met are quite capable of removing protestors when instructed to - yet won’t do much about the constant stream of pro-Palestine protests in London, where there has been despicable antisemitism.

Second jobs

Not everyone is aware of this but Khan is co-Chair of C40 “a global network of nearly 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities that are united in action to confront the climate crisis.” Its funders include Amazon, Google, L'Oréal. Very left wing!

In November last year it was reported that Sir Christopher Hohn, a major funder of Extinction Rebellion [that “really important pressure grou[p]”], had allegedly donated £46 million to C40.

Democracy… don’t you just love it.

Actual disinformation

In February this year, Khan appeared on BBC Verify, as he had been a victim of disinformation.

His inclusion on the show demonstrates how ideologically-captured our public institutions are. I’m not disputing that there was a fake AI of Khan. It’s just that his own administrations’ disinformation would have made a better episode. (Sadly the media rarely scrutinises Khan; here’s The Evening Standard coming out in support of him today; gotta love our Establishment cretins).

But back to disinformation… Last year Khan was accused of "colluding to quash research" on (ULEZ) after it was found that his deputy mayor (below) Shirley Rodrigues, had, via email, “twice asked an air quality expert to counter research questioning benefits of a polluting-vehicle charge.”

Another big salary

More details here (BBC News):

Emails show deputy mayor Shirley Rodrigues twice asked an air quality expert to counter research questioning benefits of a polluting-vehicle charge.

Prof Kelly's science team from Imperial College London has been paid nearly £1m by Mr Khan's office.

The Labour mayor said Prof Kelly's work was not influenced by the funding.

…

In a chain of emails between Ms Rodrigues and Prof Kelly, obtained via a Conservative Party Freedom of Information request, the deputy mayor for environment and energy said she was "really disappointed" that Dr Kelly's fellow Imperial academics published a study, suggesting the central London Ulez had a relatively small effect on air pollution.

It found that harmful nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations were reduced by less than 3% in inner London nine months after the expansion of the zone.

On 16 November 2021 Ms Rodrigues told Prof Kelly she was "deeply concerned about the damage this misleading study is doing, both to our credibility and to low-emission zones as a policy instrument".

She asked him if "there is anything you can do or advise to help us set the record straight?".

In February the advertising watchdog also said that Khan and TfL misled Londoners about the benefits of ULEZ. Summary:

… the Greater London Authority or TfL breached its rules on three occasions, including with the suggestion that “one of the most polluted places in London is inside your car”.

But don’t be expecting a BBC Verify episode any time soon…

Personal thoughts

Whenever I complain about London I am often told to move to a new area.

I really struggle with the idea as I grew up in Islington - moving to Kent when I was 13 - and it had a very strong impression on me.

It is my childhood stomping ground and everything that feels “normal” and “familiar” (and yes, I do wish that one of the most expensive parts of the country wasn’t my “normal”).

Growing up in Islington, I saw crime (a man batting another round the head with a baseball bat, for instance, when my brothers and I were being driven home from school by my mum). But I was never scared - even at the age of 11 when I begged my parents to get the bus on my own. I remember the excitement as I was allowed to ride the 73 for the first time. (Back then it was 40p for a child ticket - and £1 if they didn’t believe you and thought you were an adult.)

The worst thing you faced was May Day protests (remember them?) but they are nothing compared to the constant chaos now. Moreover London was always a place that “enriched” rather taking away from people. Khan always says “diversity is our strength”, but take the many delicious eateries that have gone out of business. Some of my fondest memories are immersing myself in international cuisine, with visits to Tiger Lil’s, where you could put together amazing flaming woks, and my parents bringing back takeaways from Afghan Kitchen (which is still there fortunately) and Yellow River Cafe (it no longer exists). I miss these experiences which have been replaced by Deliveroo drivers bringing Wagamamas to the door. Of course, food is just the start of it; London feels much more corporate and heartless than it used to, with over-expensive chains instead of one-of-a-kind venues; like a big extension of M&M's World.

It’s not just the cultural decline, of course; the city increasingly feels like being a player in Grand Theft Auto. Since Khan became Mayor I have seen a long blade pulled out (in Camden), had to call the police on a fight (in Clerkenwell), been groped twice (on a bus and Old Compton Street), had my phone stolen and attended court as a witness for a trial involving a racist hate crime on a bus. At the lesser end I have been stranded on nights out because of the lack of taxis - due to the growth of anti-car measures.

One final point

In media, there is an unofficial rule that you try not to write about London; editors, TV and paper, are wary in case we (mostly Londoners) look “London centric” and alienate readers across the country. But I’ve always found there’s an interest in the topic. It’s the UK Capital, and we all have a stake in it, no matter where you’re based. When London is in an unhealthy state, the rest of the country takes cues from it. London can unnerve people, and that’s what it’s doing now. That’s why it’s so important that it’s managed sensibly, fairly and by someone who actually loves the city; I have never felt that about Khan.

Obviously, I hope he loses tomorrow (I am voting for Susan Hall to be transparent; this is tactical; I actually think mayors should be abolished full stop across the UK). But if my dreams are not fulfilled, I hope our politicians think long and hard about their neglect, bordering on contempt, for our splendid capital. We deserve better. All Brits.