Sadiq Khan has been blasted over his “wasteful” record at City Hall as the London Mayor appeared to blame Brexit for his failings.
Conservative Assembly Member Susan Hall, who is challenging Khan for the mayoralty in May, took aim at the two-time London Mayor over his use of taxpayers’ cash.
Responding to Hall at Mayor’s Question Time today, Khan slammed the UK’s decision to leave the EU and successive Tory Governments.
He said: “One example of something that has gone wrong is the disastrously hard Brexit that has so far shaved £30billion off growth in London’s economy, meaning 290,000 fewer jobs and Londoners being £3,400 worse off.
Conservative Assembly Member Susan Hall, who is challenging Khan for the mayoralty in May, took aim at Mayor
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“City Hall’s analysis has shown that the cost to the UK economy has been a staggering £140billion already and that is projected to rise to £300billion in 2035 if our current trading arrangements don’t change.”
Khan released a damning report into the impact of Brexit on London last week as he demanded Britain forges a closer political relationship with the Brussels bloc and accepts more immigration.
However, the London Mayor was also keen to slam the Tory Party over a number of other policy areas.
He argued Boris Johnson’s Government was “incompetent” when responding to COVID-19 and berated Liz Truss over her mini-budget for its impact on the UK’s housing market.
Khan added: “We don’t have time to catalogue all the failures that this Government has overseen but the effects have been felt by everyone.
“Young people hit by austerity cuts to youth provision, older Londoners left vulnerable during the pandemic, homeowners facing higher mortgage payments, renters at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords with no Government help and workers forced to strike in the face of Government real-term pay cuts.
“Despite the backdrop of Government failure, I am proud of what we’ve managed to achieve at City Hall.”
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Brexit has become a divisive topic in BritainPAKhan listed building more new council homes, tackling congestion, climate change and air pollution, hiring 1,300 more police officers, providing thousands of young Londoners with a personal mentor and offering universal free school meals as some of his top achievements.
Hall was far from convinced by Khan’s decision to batter Brexit and successive Conservative Prime Ministers.
She said: “I really thought for once you'd actually think about the fact that you are the Mayor of London, that you have a £21billion budget.
“I thought, just for once, that you might not have blamed somebody else, for something else that goes wrong. I thought there might just be an atom of humility.
“But no, as usual, you blame everybody else for everything else.”
Speaking to GB News after locking horns with Khan, Hall argued the London Mayor always reverts to Brexit-bashing when he comes under pressure.
Sadiq Khan released a damning report into the impact of Brexit on London last week
PAShe explained: “Sadiq Khan always ends up banging on about Brexit when he gets into trouble.
“1,000 people have been murdered on London's streets while he has been failing to lead the police, and his unfair ULEZ expansion is ripping off families, small businesses and charities.
"He shows nothing but contempt for Londoners, always has, and always will - unless we see him out of office this May."
Hall also highlighted a number of examples which she claimed demonstrates Khan wasting cash, including Scotland Yard's recruitment problems, funds being lost through fare-dodging and the London Mayor’s “magic money tree” to prevent strike action.
Tory Assembly Members previously decided to boycott Khan’s Brexit investigation, describing the probe a “waste of time”.
A number of Brexiteers also blasted Khan’s investigation, with Nigel Farage saying: “More than 1,000 murders have taken place in London in the 2,773 days since Sadiq Khan was first elected. Perhaps he should focus more on that and less about Brexit."
Economist Julian Jessop, who described Khan’s attack as “fatally flawed”, also said: “The model-based claim that the UK economy is already six per cent (or £140billion) smaller as a result of Brexit is very hard to square with the actual data.”
Susan Hall is challenging Sadiq Khan for the mayoralty
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Londoners were split on the Brexit debate, with a number of outer boroughs voting to leave the EU.
The division is perhaps best summarised by the difference between the 70 per cent Brexit-backing borough of Havering and 79 per cent Remain-supporting borough of Lambeth.
However, unlike the majority of UK voters, the capital ultimately decided it would rather stay in the bloc by 60 per cent to 40 per cent.
City Hall Conservatives have also recently claimed Khan wasted £123million of taxpayers’ cash on “misplaced priorities”, including on beach parties and personality tests.
Sources close to Khan disputed the allegation, labelling the Tory dossier a “misleading attack”.
However, the London Mayor announced a pre-election spending package would result in an additional boost of £500million.
The cash is going to the Metropolitan Police, TFL staff and motorists seeking to scrap Ulez non-compliant vehicles.
Some of London's outer boroughs were very pro-Brexit
GETTYKhan said: “I’m having to use all the levers at my disposal to provide urgent additional funding from City Hall, particularly for the police.”
Conservative Assembly Member Peter Fortune replied: “An extra half a billion in additional ‘surprise money’ has turned up since Christmas. Money hoarded and not used. Money stored up for an election year.”
Liberal Democrat Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon said: “This is a sticking plaster budget from the mayor in an attempt to try and see himself through the upcoming election.
“Magically, the mayor seems to have found pots of money that only a few weeks ago he was denying existed.
"Our emergency and transport services are creaking at the seams/over stretched and this budget won’t fix that.”
Despite a number of issues threatening Khan’s popularity, the former Tooting MP is expected to romp to victory come polling day.
A Find Out Now survey conducted in November gave the London Mayor 46 per cent of the vote, with Hall languishing behind in a distant second on just 25 per cent.
