Sadiq Khan has launched his re-election campaign in London today. The Mayor is seeking a historic third time in office.
The London Mayor was introduced by Sir Keir Starmer as he gave a speech in the capital this morning.
Khan's campaign launch saw him unveil a fresh pledge to build 40,000 new council homes by the end of the decade.
He promised to unleash “the greatest council housebuilding drive in a generation” and to double his previous goal to start building 20,000 council homes, which he hit last year.
Sadiq Khan has launched his re-election campaign in London today. The Mayor is seeking a historic third time in office
PA
Khan also used his speech to warn that the mayoral election on May 2 is a “two-horse race” between himself and the Conservatives’ Susan Hall, who he claimed would “take our city backwards”.
But reacting to his speech, Hall said: "After eight years as Mayor, Sadiq Khan still isn't listening. He has fallen far behind his affordable homes targets, allowed crime to soar and imposed his disastrous ULEZ expansion tax against the wishes of Londoners.
"On May 2nd, we can either give him permission to ignore us even more or we can vote for change."
Looking back at his time in office, Khan noted his success in achieving free school meals for primary school children, freezing Transport for London fares and putting 1,300 more police on the streets.
He said: “As Mayor, I’ve also never stopped standing up for London’s values of openness, equality and inclusion. Striving to unite London’s communities, not divide them.
“Celebrating our diversity, not denigrating it. Because let me be clear: London’s diversity isn’t a weakness, it’s a formidable strength. And it makes London not only special, but the greatest city on earth.”
Introducing the Mayor this morning, Starmer said Khan would be able to achieve more if there was a Labour government, saying all of the London Mayor's achievements had been “in the teeth of a Tory government”.
Starmer said the Mayor had spent eight years “fighting for London with a government that is hostile to progress because of the mayor”.
With a general election later this year, the Labour leader continued: “Imagine the transformation if we had a Labour mayor in London, working alongside a Labour government, how much more we could do – at much greater pace – for all of our communities.
“We know that, nationally, the country wants change, you can feel it everywhere you go. Fourteen years of failure and the country wants the chance to say ‘let’s change’.
“They know the Tories can’t deliver that change. Look around you, is there anything now working better than it did 14 years ago? The answer to that question is no.”
Khan echoed this, claiming London could have gone “much further, much faster” without a Tory government “holding us back”.
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The London Mayor accused the Conservatives of an “abject failure” to grasp the gravity of the housing crisis.
He said: “We saw it when the last home secretary claimed homelessness is, quote, a lifestyle choice. We saw it last week when the latest housing minister said housing is never really the problem.
“And I’m under no illusion about the scale. The challenge has been decades in the making, but with political will, it can be overcome.”
