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Zac Goldsmith attacked by senior Tory over tactics in London mayor election Zac Goldsmith attacked by senior Tory over tactics in London mayoral election
(35 minutes later)
Zac Goldsmith’s campaign tactics in the London mayoral race were a mistake and could damage community relations in the capital, a senior Tory has warned. A senior London Conservative has criticised the mayoral campaign of Zac Goldsmith for “outrageous” attempts to link his Labour opponent, Sadiq Khan, to Islamist extremism.
The Conservative mayoral candidate and David Cameron sought to link the Labour candidate, Sadiq Khan, with Muslims described by the prime minister as extremists. But Andrew Boff, the Conservative group leader on the Greater London Assembly, launched a stinging attack on the way Goldsmith’s campaign to succeed Boris Johnson in City Hall was run. Andrew Boff, the Conservative group leader on the Greater London assembly, said it was a mistake for his own side to have attacked Khan in a way that could damage community relations.
Meanwhile, a Labour source said Khan’s team was optimistic about his chances but did not believe the large opinion poll leads he had been getting. Goldsmith’s claims about Khan have been branded racist and divisive by Labour and some Conservative activists.
However, the Tory mayoral candidate and David Cameron persisted in alleging that Khan was unfit for office, arguing he had showed poor judgment in sharing platforms with Islamist extremists while he was a human rights lawyer.
Related: UK local election results 2016: live updates and news
Despite the attacks, Khan has been the bookmakers’ favourite throughout the race and would become the UK’s most powerful Muslim politician to date if he wins. Labour campaign sources said they were optimistic.
After polls closed, Boff, who competed with Goldsmith for the Tory mayoral nomination, told the BBC’s Newsnight: “Well, I don’t think it was a dog whistle because you can’t hear a dog whistle. Everybody could hear this. It was effectively saying that people of conservative religious views are not to be trusted and you should not share a platform with them. That’s outrageous.”
Boff said the campaign had “done real damage” and had “blown up bridges” the Conservative party had built with London’s Muslim communities.Boff said the campaign had “done real damage” and had “blown up bridges” the Conservative party had built with London’s Muslim communities.
“I mentioned that I thought this was a mistake for future integration in London. If you are a London politician this is just a bizarre thing to do,” he said.“I mentioned that I thought this was a mistake for future integration in London. If you are a London politician this is just a bizarre thing to do,” he said.
He told BBC’s Newsnight it was an error to “equate people of conservative religious views with sympathising with terrorism” but said it was not an example of so-called dog-whistle politics because it was such a prominent part of the campaign. Boff said it was a particular error to “equate people of conservative religious views with sympathising with terrorism”.
“I don’t think it was dog-whistle because you can’t hear a dog whistle – everybody could hear this,” he said. “It was effectively saying that people of conservative religious views are not to be trusted and you shouldn’t share a platform with them. That’s outrageous.” “It was ridiculous ... I do believe it’s going to affect Conservatives at the sharp end, especially in those parts of London where there is a high Muslim population,” he added.
Boff said the Tories had done well where they had actively engaged with the Muslim community in the borough of Newham, but “those bridges that have been built, a few of them have been blown up by this campaign”. Related: London mayor election: Labour high hopes for Sadiq Khan win
He said there were policy areas where the Tories could have challenged Khan but instead they focused on the extremism issue, which could have damaged Tory chances in the London Assembly elections. Some other Conservatives have already criticised Goldsmith’s approach, particularly after an article in the Mail on Sunday that was illustrated with a picture from the 7/7 bombing and headlined: “Are we really going to hand the world’s greatest city to a Labour party that thinks terrorists are its friends?”
“It was ridiculous,” said Boff, who ran against Goldsmith for the Tory nomination. “I do believe it’s going to affect Conservatives at the sharp end, especially in those parts of London where there is a high Muslim population.” The former Conservative co-chairman Sayeeda Warsi tweeted after that: “Are we Conservatives fighting to destroy Zac or fighting to win this election?
Khan is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the mayoral race, but his team remained cautious ahead of the count on Friday. “In the real world, Londoners worry about housing, jobs and NHS. In the world of politics, new reality TV show ‘Britain’s Biggest Bigot’ launched!”
A source in Khan’s camp said: “So far as we can tell, things have gone pretty much as we expected. Nothing has happened to move our market one way or the other. On Friday, Warsi said: “The left needs to root out antisemitism in its ranks and the right needs to weed out its Islamophobes ... Dog-whistle, nasty politics is damaging the UK.”
“We are optimistic but simply do not believe the big leads we have been getting in the opinion polls.” Goldsmith later distanced himself from the headline and image accompanying the Mail on Sunday piece.
Labour is still scarred by the shock of the general election defeat, which followed opinion polls putting the party neck-and-neck with the Tories, and the source said Khan’s camp was “massively cautious” as a result.