5 key moments as Sadiq Khan and Susan Hall clash in London mayoral debate

With the London mayoral election close to a week away, the debates between candidates are heating up, to the point incumbent mayor Sadiq Khan (Labour), Susan Hall (Conservatives), Rob Blackie (Liberal Democrats) and Zoë Garbett (Greens) all took part in a discussion on LBC on Tuesday to discuss their manifesto policies.

And the debate – helmed by presenter Tom Swarbrick – soon got heated, so we’ve rounded up the key moments from the programme in one news article. You’re welcome.

Khan says Susan Hall is “the most dangerous candidate” he’s faced

Arguably the most striking moment from the debate was when Hall was challenged on her past social media activity, which saw the candidate like a post calling Khan a “traitor rat”, another featuring an image of Enoch Powell (the late Conservative MP most known for his infamous “rivers of blood” speech on immigration), and express support for a tweet from Katie Hopkins which branded the Labour candidate “our nipple height mayor of Londonistan”.

‘Londonistan’ is a racist term used to reference the right-wing idea that Muslims are taking control of the capital.

After antifascist campaign group Hope Not Hate unearthed Hall’s social media activity back in September, a spokesperson for her campaign said: “Susan engages with many people on Twitter without endorsing their views.

"Londoners want a mayor who listens to people and deals with the bread-and-butter issues that matter to them - making our streets safer and putting more money back in people's pockets.

"As Mayor, Susan will deliver that."

Speaking on LBC this week, Hall added she had apologised for her actions on social media “a long time ago, many times” and that she has “learnt that you have to be very, very careful when you just flick on things without thinking twice about it”.

“I’ve apologised for that and I’ve learned from my mistakes,” she said.

Meanwhile, when asked for his take on Hall’s online behaviour, Khan commented it was “very serious” as it affects his personal safety and the safety of his family.

“I’m very careful with what I’ve said now, and I’ve thought long and hard about this, Tom. I’ve fought three council elections, I’ve fought three parliamentary elections, this is my third mayoral election.

“The Tory candidate is the most dangerous candidate I’ve fought against,” he said.

Hall responded by branding it an “outrageous comment”, and in another exchange insisted she does not “divide communities” and refused to apologise for supporting Donald Trump, and “liking” Powell and Lee Anderson.

She said: “I support all communities. I come from Harrow, the most diverse borough in London, I’d say - it's incredible.

“If you look at all communities, we all have the same values. We all believe in hard work, we all believe in family and we all believe in fairness, and we should all look at people in that way. We’ve all got the same values.”

Khan criticised for “conveyer belt” comments on homelessness

Turning to a 71 per cent increase in rough sleeping since 2016, Swarbrick challenged Khan on his work in this area.

He replied: “Rough sleeping across the country has more than doubled since 2010 … [and] it breaks my heart, what you see in London.

“We’ve managed to take 16,000 rough sleepers off the streets in London – a record amount. 75 per cent have stayed off [the streets], but there’s a conveyer belt of new people coming in…”

Green Party candidate Zoë Garbett interjected: “You can’t call them a ‘conveyer belt of people’. They are people that are experiencing extreme hardship.”

Hall added: “’A conveyer belt of people’. These are the most vulnerable people in our city.”

Khan challenged on Ulez

A number of candidates have included policies in their manifestos which look to abandon and/or reverse Khan’s work on London’s ultra low emission zone (or ‘Ulez’ for short), which sees non-compliant cars, motorbikes, vans and specialist vehicles issued with a £12.50 daily charge to travel around London boroughs, and Khan was scrutinised on the scheme during the debate.

Hall said: “There’s no way he won’t bring in pay-per-mile. He expected us to trust him on the expansion of the Ulez, and that has brought so much hardship, it really has.

“People trusted him, and he let them down. 60 per cent of people in the consultation said ‘we don’t want it’. He ignored them, he put it in anyway.

“He will bring in pay-per-mile, the evidence is there … £21 million of our money has gone into it … He cannot be trusted, and we all know that. He goes back on what he promises.”

Pay-per-mile concerns replacing the current vehicle excise duty for cars to be on public roads with a tax calculated from their annual mileage. Khan was reported to have abandoned a potential rollout of the initiative earlier this week.

Khan responded to Hall by saying: “What we now know on the ballot paper is cleaner versus polluted air. I’m quite clear in relation to being incredibly proud of policies to clean the air in London.

“Before my policies, there were thousands of children with stunted lungs forever, too many premature deaths in our city, too many adults with a whole host of health issues – from asthma, to cancer, dementia, to heart disease.

“You’ve got doctors, you’ve got GPs, you’ve got professionals in respiratory care, you’ve got Great Ormond Street all supporting my policy. The only people against it are Susan Hall and the Tories.”

Hall accuses Khan of “promising the earth”

During a section of the debate on housing, Hall took a swipe at Khan and said: “I have sat there and listened to Sadiq Khan promising the earth for the last seven years I’ve been in the assembly. ‘I promised to do this, and we’ve started that.’

“It’s all he ever does. He’s had billions of pounds – billions – from the government and does not deliver.

“We’ve had so many numbers thrown at us from Sadiq Khan and he hasn’t delivered.”

A U-turn from Susan Hall on free school meals?

Hall claimed she committed to free school meals “before Sadiq Khan did” and expressed her support for the policy on a universal level.

When Swarbrick noted Hall’s previous concern over the initiative, she added: “Nevertheless, I said I’d continue it … I said I’d go ahead with it. It’s documented late last year, before Sadiq Khan said he would do it,

“There are children that need feeding and I would think that they should have a nutritional, high quality meal, and that’s what we’ve agreed to continue for another year.”

Hall was previously filmed calling for free school meals to be “targeted” and warning that “we could have people on the breadline, without children” ending up paying for free school meals for “millionaires’ children”.

Noting this, Khan joked: “Congratulations, you’ve got the Tory candidate to perform a U-turn live on air.”

The full list of candidates

It’s important to note that these are just four of the 13 candidates standing for election this time around, with the full list provided below:

• Femy Amin (Animal Welfare Party)
• Count Binface (Independent)
• Rob Blackie (Liberal Democrats)
• Natalie Campbell (Independent)
• Howard Cox (Reform UK)
• Amy Gallagher (Social Democratic Party)
• Zoë Garbett (Green)
• Tarun Ghulati (Independent)
• Susan Hall (Conservatives)
• Sadiq Khan (Labour)
• Andreas Michli (Independent)
• Brian Rose (London Real Party)
• Nick Scanlon (Britain First)

Polling day is 2 May, with polling stations open from 7am to 10pm.

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