Dear Fellow Londoner,
Yesterday was Mayor's Question Time (MQT), when London Assembly Members get to quiz the Mayor on his priorities for London. This was the first MQT since the General Election, so it was interesting to compare what his answers to questions were like, now that he is working with a new Labour Government. There are two things that we immediately noticed. Firstly, it appears that Sir Keir Starmer, the new Prime Minister, has snubbed Sadiq Khan by refusing to give him things that he has spent years campaigning for. Secondly, it seems that Sadiq Khan is radically watering down the requests which he is making to the incoming Government.
Request Denied
Many of you will remember that Sadiq Khan has been campaigning for various new powers over the last few years. One of the new powers he wants is the power to take over suburban railway services in the capital and run them himself. Evidently, Keir Starmer believes that he cannot be trusted to run these services, and so far has refused to devolve these powers.
Sadiq Khan has also repeatedly told the London Assembly that he wants the power to freeze rents in the capital. We know from looking at other trials of this policy - such as in Germany, Scotland, and Ireland - that freezing rents always ends in disaster, with many people simply unable to find any home to rent at all. It looks as though Keir Starmer agrees with us, as he has refused to grant Sadiq Khan this power too.
It's worth noting that these two powers would not cost the Government anything - so this is not a case of Rachel Reeves (the new Labour Chancellor) holding tightly onto the purse strings. Instead, they simply don't trust Sadiq Khan with those powers.
Watering Down Housing Requests
Very shortly after the 2019 General Election, Sadiq Khan wrote to the then-Conservative Government, asking for a huge £49 billion. He claimed this amount of money was "needed" to fix London's housing crisis. We asked him at Mayor's Question Time whether he would be making a similar request of the new Government. In fact, he's now only making a request for £2 billion. It's clear that London still faces a huge demand for housing that people can afford to live in, so there doesn't seem to be a reason for Sadiq Khan to water down his demands other than for political reasons.
Policing
You may remember that the previous Government provided Sadiq Khan with £64 million to hire 1,000 more police officers. Unfortunately, he was unable to meet this recruitment target and so some of this money had to be returned to central Government and given to those that were able to hire more police. Sadiq Khan’s manifesto included the promise of hiring over 1,000 more police.
Watch this video of Susan Hall AM asking how he will ensure that these police will be recruited, and whether he will ask for the new Labour Government to reinstate the rest of the £64 million which he originally had to pay back.
Since the position of Mayor of London was created, the post has always been filled by a politician who is not afraid to stand up to their own Government on behalf of Londoners. London has always felt like a somewhat independent city with its own culture & identity - we don't like simply being told what we need and bossed around by central Government. We hope that as time goes on, Sadiq Khan remembers that his job is to be London's independent voice - not just a megaphone for Sir Keir Starmer.
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