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| London mayor race: fibs, fur and fantasies fly as Zac Goldsmith awakes | London mayor race: fibs, fur and fantasies fly as Zac Goldsmith awakes |
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| Who kissed Sleeping Beauty? After months of campaign slumber Zac Goldsmith, Conservative mayoral candidate and organic Dish of the Day, finally woke up late last week in a London television studio. Until then, his main rival for City Hall, Labour’s Sadiq Khan, had been outrunning, outflanking and generally outdoing him on every front. But when, for the first time, Goldsmith engaged Khan directly, face to face, on ITV London’s Late Debate, he at last looked switched on and more like the electoral Prince Charming his party hopes he is. Confident and calm, he called Khan’s bluff a few times. He also talked plenty of trash. Both men are now bullshitting freely. Wellies on. Let’s wade in. | Who kissed Sleeping Beauty? After months of campaign slumber Zac Goldsmith, Conservative mayoral candidate and organic Dish of the Day, finally woke up late last week in a London television studio. Until then, his main rival for City Hall, Labour’s Sadiq Khan, had been outrunning, outflanking and generally outdoing him on every front. But when, for the first time, Goldsmith engaged Khan directly, face to face, on ITV London’s Late Debate, he at last looked switched on and more like the electoral Prince Charming his party hopes he is. Confident and calm, he called Khan’s bluff a few times. He also talked plenty of trash. Both men are now bullshitting freely. Wellies on. Let’s wade in. |
| The risk with Khan’s campaign is that he over-promises or, to be exact, seems to be doing so. This gives Goldsmith an opportunity to depict him as an untrustworthy, dreamworld lefty, which is the top and bottom of his strategy. The Tory has been assisted by an internal Transport for London (TfL) briefing note which found its way to BBC London. According to this document, Khan has hugely underestimated the cost to TfL of his proposed four-year freeze on public transport fares. Goldsmith recited an entire paragraph from the Lynton Crosby red scare manual he’s clearly been diligently cramming. I quote: | The risk with Khan’s campaign is that he over-promises or, to be exact, seems to be doing so. This gives Goldsmith an opportunity to depict him as an untrustworthy, dreamworld lefty, which is the top and bottom of his strategy. The Tory has been assisted by an internal Transport for London (TfL) briefing note which found its way to BBC London. According to this document, Khan has hugely underestimated the cost to TfL of his proposed four-year freeze on public transport fares. Goldsmith recited an entire paragraph from the Lynton Crosby red scare manual he’s clearly been diligently cramming. I quote: |
| This transport stuff we are hearing from Sadiq Khan is fantasy nonsense, it’s Corbyn madness. It simply does not add up and if you were to create the kind of efficiencies in TfL you [Sadiq] are talking about it would require you to take on the very unions that are backing, running and controlling your campaign. | This transport stuff we are hearing from Sadiq Khan is fantasy nonsense, it’s Corbyn madness. It simply does not add up and if you were to create the kind of efficiencies in TfL you [Sadiq] are talking about it would require you to take on the very unions that are backing, running and controlling your campaign. |
| Corbyn! The unions! Eeek! It’s sewage. But Khan did not respond to the attack especially well. True, he spelled out in big numbers the measures he claims TfL could take to mitigate a slower increase in fares revenue than they’ve grown used to under Boris Johnson. The weightier of these cannot be dismissed out of hand. But his line on that inconvenient briefing note was pretty much to deny that it exists. He’ll need to do better than that. | Corbyn! The unions! Eeek! It’s sewage. But Khan did not respond to the attack especially well. True, he spelled out in big numbers the measures he claims TfL could take to mitigate a slower increase in fares revenue than they’ve grown used to under Boris Johnson. The weightier of these cannot be dismissed out of hand. But his line on that inconvenient briefing note was pretty much to deny that it exists. He’ll need to do better than that. |
| Goldsmith also called out Khan on his claim that his idea of an affordable home is one that costs £450,000. That is the most expensive the government’s “starter homes” can be in the capital. Plenty of London starter homes and other properties termed “affordable” are too expensive for people on low incomes, but £450,000 is not typical of starter home prices as a whole. “That’s a nonsense point to make,” Goldsmith said, and he was right. | Goldsmith also called out Khan on his claim that his idea of an affordable home is one that costs £450,000. That is the most expensive the government’s “starter homes” can be in the capital. Plenty of London starter homes and other properties termed “affordable” are too expensive for people on low incomes, but £450,000 is not typical of starter home prices as a whole. “That’s a nonsense point to make,” Goldsmith said, and he was right. |
| However, Goldsmith’s stock charge that Khan is “Corbyn’s man in London” is every bit as false. Khan is not a Corbynite, his campaign is entirely separate from Corbyn’s office and it considers itself blessed in being so. Some national Labour staff deployed to it see themselves as having been washed up on a golden beach with the words “refugees welcome” written in the sand. | However, Goldsmith’s stock charge that Khan is “Corbyn’s man in London” is every bit as false. Khan is not a Corbynite, his campaign is entirely separate from Corbyn’s office and it considers itself blessed in being so. Some national Labour staff deployed to it see themselves as having been washed up on a golden beach with the words “refugees welcome” written in the sand. |
| A bridge between the two camps takes the form of a couple of senior London MPs who were asked by one of the more capable members of Corbyn’s team to do a spot of light touch liaison. Their view is that Team Khan is doing very well and should continue to be left alone to get on with it, which is exactly what is happening. | A bridge between the two camps takes the form of a couple of senior London MPs who were asked by one of the more capable members of Corbyn’s team to do a spot of light touch liaison. Their view is that Team Khan is doing very well and should continue to be left alone to get on with it, which is exactly what is happening. |
| The Goldsmith Big Fib that a future Mayor Khan would treat City Hall as a test lab for a madcap Corbyn manifesto is even sillier. In reality Khan would be freer still to do his own thing and have a mandate for it too. As London mayor, he would be the most powerful Labour politician in the land. A flailing, trailing, leader of the opposition would have no dominion over him at all. | The Goldsmith Big Fib that a future Mayor Khan would treat City Hall as a test lab for a madcap Corbyn manifesto is even sillier. In reality Khan would be freer still to do his own thing and have a mandate for it too. As London mayor, he would be the most powerful Labour politician in the land. A flailing, trailing, leader of the opposition would have no dominion over him at all. |
| As Khan and Goldsmith trade dodgy accusations, it’s useful to bear in mind the constraints of the office they are seeking. The mayoral dispensation is like a corridor through the political centre ground: a pretty narrow one too with few side rooms available for ideological free expression. Yes, mayors can wave red flags or speak up for bankers but they can’t raise a London income tax, reorganise the London health service, run London schools or declare war on Liverpool. | As Khan and Goldsmith trade dodgy accusations, it’s useful to bear in mind the constraints of the office they are seeking. The mayoral dispensation is like a corridor through the political centre ground: a pretty narrow one too with few side rooms available for ideological free expression. Yes, mayors can wave red flags or speak up for bankers but they can’t raise a London income tax, reorganise the London health service, run London schools or declare war on Liverpool. |
| Goldsmith rightly stresses that City Hall needs to work productively with national governments because they hand out most of the money available to the mayoralty partner organisations and have it in their gift to bestow further powers. He claims that he’s already shown he can improve the deal the capital gets, directing our attention to George Osborne’s refraining from further slashing the Met budget and to the London “2 for 1” Housing Bill amendment. It is a pity, though, that he couldn’t stop the chancellor slashing Transport for London’s funding or cutting poor boroughs’ grants to the bone. Why hasn’t he spoken out? | Goldsmith rightly stresses that City Hall needs to work productively with national governments because they hand out most of the money available to the mayoralty partner organisations and have it in their gift to bestow further powers. He claims that he’s already shown he can improve the deal the capital gets, directing our attention to George Osborne’s refraining from further slashing the Met budget and to the London “2 for 1” Housing Bill amendment. It is a pity, though, that he couldn’t stop the chancellor slashing Transport for London’s funding or cutting poor boroughs’ grants to the bone. Why hasn’t he spoken out? |
| The previous evening the two front runners had encountered each other in the less intimate setting of the Royal Geographical Society in South Kensington, where the Evening Standard put on a hustings. Khan got slightly the better of Goldsmith there, punching out his can-do soundbites and speaking with natural authority about combating Islamic extremists. He firmly upbraided a brainless heckler who thought the problem would be solved if mosques were closed. | The previous evening the two front runners had encountered each other in the less intimate setting of the Royal Geographical Society in South Kensington, where the Evening Standard put on a hustings. Khan got slightly the better of Goldsmith there, punching out his can-do soundbites and speaking with natural authority about combating Islamic extremists. He firmly upbraided a brainless heckler who thought the problem would be solved if mosques were closed. |
| Also on the panel were the Green party’s Sian Berry, Liberal Democrat Caroline Pidgeon and Sophie Walker of the Women’s Equality party, all of whom acquitted themselves well and I will receive further coverage here in the coming weeks. Completing the line-up was George Galloway, who was presumably asked along in the hope that he would make fur fly. | |
| The old pussycat tried but failed. Galloway has had a rough time in recent years and his powers of persuasion are weakening. He parades himself as the impending scourge of all London evils, from terrorists who he’s claimed he would personally shoot dead, to bankers and the City Corporation, which he reckons he’d have shut down, to Uber, which he declared on Wednesday he would “run out of town.” | The old pussycat tried but failed. Galloway has had a rough time in recent years and his powers of persuasion are weakening. He parades himself as the impending scourge of all London evils, from terrorists who he’s claimed he would personally shoot dead, to bankers and the City Corporation, which he reckons he’d have shut down, to Uber, which he declared on Wednesday he would “run out of town.” |
| Guess what? None of those things would happen. These days Galloway has much in common with Mayor Johnson, the man he is not going to succeed: more style than substance; all mouth and no trousers. One difference, though, is that Johnson has, if we use the term loosely, been in charge of something big for a few years. You wonder if Galloway could run a bath. More to the point, would he want to? He’d have to tear himself away from the mirror. | Guess what? None of those things would happen. These days Galloway has much in common with Mayor Johnson, the man he is not going to succeed: more style than substance; all mouth and no trousers. One difference, though, is that Johnson has, if we use the term loosely, been in charge of something big for a few years. You wonder if Galloway could run a bath. More to the point, would he want to? He’d have to tear himself away from the mirror. |
| You know what they say about men who wear sunglasses indoors? The same goes for those who don’t remove their hats. Galloway’s mayoral bid is an egomaniac’s hissyfit based on a con. His defining mission is to heap insults on Khan, even, preposterously, accusing him of failing to be a proper Muslim. His justification is that the Labour candidate has put some critical distance between himself and Corbyn, with whom Galloway professes solidarity. “If I was Jeremy Corbyn, I’d want me to be mayor,” he said at a public meeting in Walthamstow last year, avoiding my question about whether the Labour leader would prefer him or Khan to win City Hall. | |
| The truth is obvious. If Khan triumphs in May it will show Corbyn up, but nonetheless give comfort to the Labour leader, who is expected to sustain substantial losses in Scotland, Wales and elsewhere in England on the same day. Corbyn has enough problems without Galloway trying to chip away at Khan’s vote by accusing him of stabbing Corbyn in the “back, front and side,” as he did at the hustings. | The truth is obvious. If Khan triumphs in May it will show Corbyn up, but nonetheless give comfort to the Labour leader, who is expected to sustain substantial losses in Scotland, Wales and elsewhere in England on the same day. Corbyn has enough problems without Galloway trying to chip away at Khan’s vote by accusing him of stabbing Corbyn in the “back, front and side,” as he did at the hustings. |
| “I ask everyone who supports Corbyn to vote for me, first preference,” he said. Khan tolerantly inquired if he might get their seconds. And it seems that Corbyn himself, though once an ally, is no longer a Galloway fan. Last summer he told New Statesman he’d found Galloway’s tactics when losing his Bradford West parliamentary seat to Labour’s Naz Shah last May “appalling”. Galloway had accused Shah of lying about the age she’d been when pressured into marrying a cousin in Pakistan. “I was quite shocked,” Corbyn said. | “I ask everyone who supports Corbyn to vote for me, first preference,” he said. Khan tolerantly inquired if he might get their seconds. And it seems that Corbyn himself, though once an ally, is no longer a Galloway fan. Last summer he told New Statesman he’d found Galloway’s tactics when losing his Bradford West parliamentary seat to Labour’s Naz Shah last May “appalling”. Galloway had accused Shah of lying about the age she’d been when pressured into marrying a cousin in Pakistan. “I was quite shocked,” Corbyn said. |
| Brent Central MP Dawn Butler later wrote that she’s received assurances from Corbyn that “he is not in favour” of Galloway returning to the Labour fold. Galloway was expelled from Labour in 2003 for bringing the party into disrepute by the manner of his opposition to British participation in the Iraq war. How long ago that seems. Whatever his deeper motives, Galloway made the case against that disastrous intervention with clarity and verve. He’s now a hot air populist with a whiff of nastiness, a provider of cheap media “fireworks” and, the last time anyone looked, polling at 2%. Corbyn supporters and others who imagine a vote for George would be a vote for Jeremy should think again. | Brent Central MP Dawn Butler later wrote that she’s received assurances from Corbyn that “he is not in favour” of Galloway returning to the Labour fold. Galloway was expelled from Labour in 2003 for bringing the party into disrepute by the manner of his opposition to British participation in the Iraq war. How long ago that seems. Whatever his deeper motives, Galloway made the case against that disastrous intervention with clarity and verve. He’s now a hot air populist with a whiff of nastiness, a provider of cheap media “fireworks” and, the last time anyone looked, polling at 2%. Corbyn supporters and others who imagine a vote for George would be a vote for Jeremy should think again. |
| Khan, meanwhile, has continued to sustain a media impression that he’s a capable, plausible candidate on course for victory. The Economist has joined City AM, the Mail, the Telegraph and the Jewish Chronicle as a source of friendly coverage that would have seemed highly unlikely when he beat Tessa Jowell to become his party’s candidate last September. “Mr Khan may just be the real deal,” concluded its columnist Bagehot on the strength of a detailed interview. | Khan, meanwhile, has continued to sustain a media impression that he’s a capable, plausible candidate on course for victory. The Economist has joined City AM, the Mail, the Telegraph and the Jewish Chronicle as a source of friendly coverage that would have seemed highly unlikely when he beat Tessa Jowell to become his party’s candidate last September. “Mr Khan may just be the real deal,” concluded its columnist Bagehot on the strength of a detailed interview. |
| This judgment followed a stern weighing of evidence. Khan’s housing policy was found to be not up to the task, his pro-business talk “more about what firms can do for the mayor than what the mayor can do for firms,” and his opposition to the expansion of Heathrow was described as “disappointing.” But on the plus side he was seen as an energetic pragmatist, a “good and likable manager” and a genuine team player, open to ideas. | This judgment followed a stern weighing of evidence. Khan’s housing policy was found to be not up to the task, his pro-business talk “more about what firms can do for the mayor than what the mayor can do for firms,” and his opposition to the expansion of Heathrow was described as “disappointing.” But on the plus side he was seen as an energetic pragmatist, a “good and likable manager” and a genuine team player, open to ideas. |
| Those are indeed good qualities in a mayor, who, as Ken Livingstone recognised, has to practice the art of the possible with a wide array of interest groups in order to get worthwhile things done. Focus and self-discipline are handy assets too and Khan is showing that he possesses them as well, almost to a fault. Last Tuesday, at the West Thames College in Isleworth - which, though in a Labour parliamentary seat and borough is far from its inner city heartlands - he set out his “vision for London” before a group of students and selected members of the media including the Standard and the London wings of the BBC and ITV. | Those are indeed good qualities in a mayor, who, as Ken Livingstone recognised, has to practice the art of the possible with a wide array of interest groups in order to get worthwhile things done. Focus and self-discipline are handy assets too and Khan is showing that he possesses them as well, almost to a fault. Last Tuesday, at the West Thames College in Isleworth - which, though in a Labour parliamentary seat and borough is far from its inner city heartlands - he set out his “vision for London” before a group of students and selected members of the media including the Standard and the London wings of the BBC and ITV. |
| Like Goldsmith’s similar exercise three weeks ago it was long on upbeat bullet points and short on detail: Khan’s London would deliver modern, “affordable” transport; it would be stronger, fairer, safer and greener; the “Tory housing crisis” would be “fixed”. After delivering his speech, Khan huddled briefly with reporters, leaving us in no doubt that he sticks to his core messages like glue. | Like Goldsmith’s similar exercise three weeks ago it was long on upbeat bullet points and short on detail: Khan’s London would deliver modern, “affordable” transport; it would be stronger, fairer, safer and greener; the “Tory housing crisis” would be “fixed”. After delivering his speech, Khan huddled briefly with reporters, leaving us in no doubt that he sticks to his core messages like glue. |
| Goldsmith derogates him as a “machine politician” and in way he is right. Still, after two terms of the overrated “Boris” performance and, before that, the far better but sometimes wayward Livingstone years, it would be no bad thing and, indeed, quite a relief, if City Hall was in the hands of a mainstream operator with a few solid values and a football manager’s obsession with grinding out results. But would Khan’s policies produce them? | Goldsmith derogates him as a “machine politician” and in way he is right. Still, after two terms of the overrated “Boris” performance and, before that, the far better but sometimes wayward Livingstone years, it would be no bad thing and, indeed, quite a relief, if City Hall was in the hands of a mainstream operator with a few solid values and a football manager’s obsession with grinding out results. But would Khan’s policies produce them? |
| He said at West Thames College that there was “no alternative” to TfL becoming a different kind of organisation - “more slimline” and geared to “sweat its assets more” - with him chairing its board and under the new leadership of Mike Brown, who told the Guardian last October that he’d already “had a very good meeting” with Khan at the Labour conference. Khan’s team privately drops serious names who it says have informed his claim that merging the organisation’s Tube and surface transport engineering departments would produce massive savings. | He said at West Thames College that there was “no alternative” to TfL becoming a different kind of organisation - “more slimline” and geared to “sweat its assets more” - with him chairing its board and under the new leadership of Mike Brown, who told the Guardian last October that he’d already “had a very good meeting” with Khan at the Labour conference. Khan’s team privately drops serious names who it says have informed his claim that merging the organisation’s Tube and surface transport engineering departments would produce massive savings. |
| There is a tension, though, between Khan’s wish to see low cost housing prioritised on TfL land and the organisation’s need to maximise its takings from it, which implies less “affordable” housing and more for high-priced market sale. As TfL’s director of commercial development Graeme Craig has put it, making money “has to be our top priority.” And although some of the first 50-odd sites on TfL’s list for developing with private partners may have a respectable “affordable” element, none of the few revealed so far hit Khan’s promised 50% affordable target. | There is a tension, though, between Khan’s wish to see low cost housing prioritised on TfL land and the organisation’s need to maximise its takings from it, which implies less “affordable” housing and more for high-priced market sale. As TfL’s director of commercial development Graeme Craig has put it, making money “has to be our top priority.” And although some of the first 50-odd sites on TfL’s list for developing with private partners may have a respectable “affordable” element, none of the few revealed so far hit Khan’s promised 50% affordable target. |
| Craig expects around 10,000 dwellings in total to be built on TfL land over 10 years or so. How many “affordable” ones could be delivered by the end of the next mayoral term in 2020? Maybe a Mayor Khan could get things moving sooner on more of the outer London TfL sites, where land is cheaper, but he needs to provide more detail. | Craig expects around 10,000 dwellings in total to be built on TfL land over 10 years or so. How many “affordable” ones could be delivered by the end of the next mayoral term in 2020? Maybe a Mayor Khan could get things moving sooner on more of the outer London TfL sites, where land is cheaper, but he needs to provide more detail. |
| In fairness, both he and Goldsmith have yet to fully flesh out their plans for TfL or housing policy overall and there remains plenty of time. However, Khan says that where Goldsmith is “the continuity candidate” he would be a driver of change. That’s fine, but the promise of change doesn’t always make people excited. Sometimes it makes them wary and cynical. Khan may have to work harder to persuade Londoners that his more ambitious pledges can be believed if he is not to fall victim to Goldsmith’s courtly negativity. | In fairness, both he and Goldsmith have yet to fully flesh out their plans for TfL or housing policy overall and there remains plenty of time. However, Khan says that where Goldsmith is “the continuity candidate” he would be a driver of change. That’s fine, but the promise of change doesn’t always make people excited. Sometimes it makes them wary and cynical. Khan may have to work harder to persuade Londoners that his more ambitious pledges can be believed if he is not to fall victim to Goldsmith’s courtly negativity. |