On Thursday, at Mayor's Question Time, I demanded answers from Sadiq Khan about his appalling misuse of our hard-earned money.
True to form, he ducked and dodged, offering no real explanation for his disastrous leadership.
It shouldn’t be a surprise. We’ve put up with this for eight years.
But we shouldn’t have to – and we don’t have to, if you vote for change on 2 May.
'Sadiq Khan has constantly been making financial blunders and throwing away money', says Susan Hall
PA
Sadiq Khan has constantly been making financial blunders and throwing away money.
He's the only police and crime commissioner who couldn't get his act together and recruit the officers we desperately need, frittering away £92 million of government funding.
TfL has become a black hole for cash and came close to bankruptcy under his watch until the government bailed him out.
Now it is haemorrhaging £130 million to fare dodgers because he can’t get a grip on crime in our city.
Let’s not forget the £30 million he’s handed out to stop trade unions from striking, a bung he has only now admitted to. It's nothing short of hush money, arranged with the same unions that fund the Labour Party.
But it gets worse. Sadiq Khan thinks it’s fine to splash £10 million on ‘what colour is your personality’ training for the police – as if that’s going to stop a single burglary or mugging in our streets.
Then there’s the £1 million on beach parties and festivals, plus another million on free ads for, of all things, vaginal moisturisers and lingerie. It's not just wasteful; it's laughable.
At the end of it all, it is Londoners who pay the price for Sadiq Khan’s policies.
He spent much of Mayor’s Question Time dodging questions about whether he was planning a fares freeze for TfL, only for the announcement to suddenly appear in the papers the next day.
Why the hesitancy? Because he didn’t want to face questions on the new pay-per-mile tax that he will have to use to pay for it, which would charge you for every single mile you drive.
London is at a crossroads. We can continue down Sadiq Khan's road of ridiculous waste and heavy taxes, or we can take a different path.
If I am your Mayor, I vow to bring back common sense to City Hall, focusing on the real issues that matter to you.
I want to make London a city we can all be proud of again.
I’ll scrap the Ulez expansion day one and put a stop to his pay-per-mile plans.
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I’ll give TfL the overhaul it desperately needs, so it delivers value for money instead of spending, as we discovered, £2,928 a year on Greggs.
How many sausage rolls can one man eat?
And I will make our streets safe, by getting a grip on crime and reforming the Met Police. This is where money needs to be prioritised, not on Sadiq Khan’s ego trip.
We deserve better. And on 2 May, we can vote for it.
Susan Hall is the London Mayoral Candidate for the Conservative Party.
Responding to Hall's remarks, A spokesperson for the Mayor of London, said: “As Mayor, Sadiq is focused on delivering on the issues that matter most to Londoners. This includes supporting families through the cost-of-living crisis with free school meals for all state primary school children, building a record number of council homes, being tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime – with homicides, gun crimes and the number of young people being injured with knives all down since 2016, making public transport more affordable for millions of Londoners, and taking world-leading action to tackle the climate crisis and air pollution.
“He’s also standing up for London against a government that’s refusing to properly fund our vital public services, with Sadiq having to step in to ensure the police, the London Fire Brigade and public transport network have the investment they need as we continue building a safer, fairer and greener London for everyone.”
