Sadiq Khan no longer lives in a glass onion, the distinctive bauble down near Tower Bridge. In 2022, the Mayor of London took the entire machinery of London governance, including the London Assembly and the GLA, with him down to the Royal Docks, where they now reside in an angular building formerly known as The Crystal. It sits, proudly, on Kamal Chunchie Way, named after a local race relations campaigner, and is the nerve centre, the Starship Enterprise, of London politics. It is here where Khan administers his £20.4 billion budget, ostensibly to improve London’s economic and social development; here where he oversees everything from transport and culture to housing and policing.
A divisive figure, Khan nevertheless won an unprecedented third term back in May (endorsed by The London Standard), trouncing the woefully unimpressive Tory candidate, Susan Hall. She campaigned largely on Khan’s equally divisive Ulez scheme, but it turned out Londoners weren’t as binary as she believed. However, the Mayor is continually lambasted for being unable to significantly affect rising crime in our city, and obviously for the chaotic nature of our roads. While everyone wants a cleaner, healthier city, it’s often impossible to negotiate it. As for cycle lanes, they’ve started to define London in a way that often feels overwhelming. Back in the Nineties people used to say that there was such a proliferation of Starbucks that they were starting to open Starbucks in other Starbucks. That’s how many feel about a city that’s quickly becoming a cyclist’s nirvana.
A whip-smart politician, effective on his feet, and quick to rebut criticism, Khan is as combative as he is collaborative. He has had police protection since 2017 and has experienced death threats from both far-Right and Islamist extremists. This round-the-clock protection, which is on a par with that given to the King and Sir Keir Starmer, is unprecedented for a municipal official. Since the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, things have only grown worse. In February, the then deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, Lee Anderson, said he believed Islamists had got control of the London Mayor. Anderson was suspended from the party, although these remarks highlighted the heightened fragility of the city.
I sat down with Sadiq Khan to ask him some pertinent London questions …
Sadiq, you recently announced that finally Oxford Street, after years of back and forth, is going to be pedestrianised. There is going to be a huge traffic issue, but fundamentally we think this is terrific news. Tell us your plans.
I visit cities across the globe all the time, both as a tourist and as the Mayor, and when I see what Barcelona has done with La Rambla, when I see what New York has done with Times Square, and I compare my memory of Oxford Street with my experience of Oxford Street. Love it as we do, it’s tired. It’s got competition from online, from out-of-centre shopping centres, flagship shops have left, candy shops have taken over. What should be a source of national pride has become a source of national embarrassment. My plan, working with the Government, is to form a development corporation and to pedestrianise Oxford Street within the next couple of years. The sooner the better. We’re going to work with the council, with residents, businesses are biting my hand off in relation to this. We’ve had interest already from potential investment as a consequence. Just imagine, we could curate a space where in addition to there being a pedestrian-friendly green boulevard, we could think about how we can curate the evenings, how we can bring culture into Oxford Street.
So entertainment venues, theatres?
Absolutely. During the evening, it’s tumbleweed going through Oxford Street. Why aren’t we having pavement-style cafés? We can take both residents and businesses with us. Oxford Street is really important to our national economy. So if we get this right, everyone will benefit.
Sure, but in terms of traffic redirection, where will it go?
Since the last time I had these plans, in 2017, which were on the cusp of materialising until the council walked away, since then we’ve got the Elizabeth line, and record numbers of tourists, residents, businesses and visitors walking or cycling, using public transport, and we’ve reduced the number of buses. So in terms of displacement of buses and taxis, it’s minimal.
What about cab drivers?
It’s really important they have access round the back for those roads that are parallel, and we’ll make sure there are times of the day when deliveries can take place. Other cities have managed to do it successfully, and we think we can do it in London, because if we’re not careful we’ll have more flagship shops leaving and more of those candy shops.
Any taxi I get into and make the mistake of telling them what I do, I get an earful about you. Traffic in London is terrible. What are you going to do about it?
So, we’re a city now whose population is 9.7 million. New York is around 8.4 million. We’re basically 400 Roman villages, but our population’s grown in a humongous way. So we’ve got to encourage more people, if it’s possible, to use public transport. Currently,
64 per cent either walk, cycle or use public transport. To free up the roads for those people who need to be using the roads: taxis, commercial drivers, buses and so forth. So to your black cab driver, the more cars I can take off the road enables commercial drivers and black cab drivers. Congestion costs us money in terms of people being stuck in their car rather than your plumber fixing the leak, or installing wire if you’re an electrician, or getting a disabled person from A to B if you’re a black cab driver.
You recently visited New York to look at how they’ve managed to clean up the Hudson river. What are your aspirations for doing similar things here?
I want to do the same with our river as we’ve done with clean air. It’s a source of pride to me that we have a safe swimming place outside City Hall, here in the Royal Docks, but other parts of the river are dangerous in terms of health and safety. In the Hudson they’ve introduced oysters as they oxygenise the river, and we’re looking to reintroduce otters and beavers.
So you have a plan for the rejuvenation of the Thames? The river is obviously the main thoroughfare of our city and yet it has often felt marginalised.
We’re going to change that. For far too long London’s rivers have been neglected and damaged. We have made great progress in cleaning our air in London and I’m committed to doing the same with our rivers. Our waterways — the Thames, the Roding, the Wandle and beyond — are the lifeblood of London, shaping communities, sustaining livelihoods and bringing people closer to nature. As Mayor, I want to turbocharge the restoration of nature to London’s rivers and waterways, working with partners across the capital to spearhead the return of a whole host of species — from water voles to eels and otters as we work to create a future where our rivers are clean, safe and truly for all. We are bringing together companies, regulators, charities and campaigners to work on an ambitious 10-year plan to clean up our capital’s rivers as we continue to build a greener London for everyone. For instance we’ve just launched a new London Outdoor Swimming Guide to help Londoners find the existing swimmable areas in London, which also highlights areas that could be cleaned up to possibly enable wild swimming in the future. And there will be lots more.
What makes a good Londoner is that work ethic, wanting to do well. Nobody comes here to sit on their bum
Will you go for a fourth term?
Ask me again in three-and-a-half years’ time. You know a good football manager only focuses on delivery.
Presumably you want to lead the Labour Party one day?
No, I’ve no ambitions at all to lead the Labour Party, because one of my best mates is the current leader and he’ll be Prime Minister for a long time.
What would you do if you re-entered the private sector?
I’ve not thought about it. I spend a lot of time with the private sector and one of the things I didn’t fully appreciate until I became Mayor, if I’m honest, is the amount of risk entrepreneurs put into their business. Politicians have got egos, where we think we create the wealth and prosperity, but we only create the environment.
You flip-flopped over rent freezes. Do you want them or not?
I definitely want them. We’re going to, by the end of this term, have 6,000 homes in London built where there is rent control. I’m working with the Government to have more council houses being built and homes with social rent being built. The Government’s got an ambition to build 1.5 million homes, and I want a big chunk of those to come to London.
Is Nigel Farage a force for good?
No. What he does do, though, is he manages to respond to legitimate concerns people have. I think there are two types of politicians: the first tries to address people’s fears — you may have
a fear your daughters can’t get affordable housing, or that your loved one can’t get decent healthcare. You might be concerned about your inability to get a job commensurate with your skills. I’ve got to try and address those concerns. That’s the first type of politician, that I hope I am. The second type of politician plays on your fears. This is the reason why your kids can’t get houses, because of the European Union. The reason why your wife’s having to wait for healthcare is because of the immigrant, and so forth. You know, blaming the other is the oldest trick in the politicians’ handbook. I think Farage does too much of blaming the other.
What’s the plan with the Gaza marches? Do you think people calling for the end of Israel should be imprisoned?
One of the joys of living in a democracy is I get people like you holding me to account. I’ve got family and friends who live in countries where there is no holding to account of people in positions of power. It isn’t just journalism, voting, or joining a political party. It’s signing petitions, lobbying a parliamentarian or a mayor, going on protests. I think it’s something we should be really proud of, that even though I may not agree with what you’re protesting about, you’ve got the right to protest in our wonderful city. But if you do protest, you’ve got to act within the law. You’ve got to make sure it’s safe, peaceful and lawful. So if anybody goes to any protest, whether it’s a pro-Gaza protest or another protest, don’t break the law.
There’s been an exodus of London’s rich, because of fears over government tax rises. Aren’t you worried about this? Everyone’s moving to Milan.
There are a number of things we do to attract people to London. So when you’re somebody considering whether to invest in London versus Frankfurt, Berlin, Dublin, Paris, Barcelona, or to be a student here, or to be a non-dom or whatever, there are a number of things you look at, right? Tax is one of them, but there are other issues. Quality of restaurants, quality of culture, the quality of schools, the universities, sports. One of the things though, when I speak to people thinking about investing here, who’ve not invested in the past few years, is the instability of our country. We’ve had six prime ministers in the time I’ve been Mayor.
The rich are not leaving because of the previous five Tory leaders.
Well, I’m sorry, they have left because of the last five Tory leaders. For every person you can tell me who’s leaving, I can give you examples of businesses thinking about investing here. I want people to be wealth creators here, whether you’re British or from overseas. We have more than 100 unicorns in London. I’ve got no problem with people creating the wealth. I encourage it — it generates jobs and so forth.
We’ll agree to disagree on that. But you’re keen for the UK to rejoin Europe, aren’t you?
Yes. It’s not going to happen in the short or medium term, but in the long term I think we should be able to have a conversation about that; in the short-to-medium term what we focus on instead is closer alignment. I’ll be lobbying the British Government to have closer alignment rather than more divergence.
How has London managed to retain its crown as the theatre capital of the world?
Because we’ve got the Cameron Mackintoshes and the Andrew Lloyd Webbers. These are people who invest — Sonia Friedman — in our great theatres. The previous government didn’t realise the impact we had for the good around the country, because we subsidised theatre — National Theatre, ballet, Royal Opera, English National Ballet — but also commercial theatre. Moving Sadler’s Wells to East Bank is a good example of bringing culture to under-served communities. The BBC’s going to move there, the V&A’s moving there.
What makes a good Londoner?
I talk about something I call the London promise, which is you work hard, you get a helping hand, you can achieve anything. What makes a good Londoner is that work ethic, wanting to do well. Nobody comes here to sit on their bum. You want to do well. Whatever job you do you want to give your utmost. But also we don’t simply tolerate difference, we respect it, embrace it, celebrate it. You tolerate toothache or a backache. I don’t want to be tolerated as somebody who’s different, and that’s a lovely joy of being a Londoner.
Who would you like to see as leader of the Conservatives?
The person least likely to win the next general election, but the most likely to be an effective opposition. Whether you’re a politician, a sportsperson, a newspaper, competition means you raise your game, and I think we as a Labour Government will be a better government with good challenge. It’s really important not to be in an echo chamber. Of the four candidates, I think the most effective would be James Cleverly. He brings people together. He’s somebody who I think wouldn’t play to these culture wars that one or two others are playing to.
Will fixing Hammersmith Bridge be easier under Labour? It’s an embarrassment.
It’s just a disaster what’s happening in that part of west London. There are children who’ve got to make a long journey to get to their schools, families cut off from their parents. The council can’t afford to pay, we can’t afford to pay for it. The Government’s got to step in.
Trump or Harris?
Harris.
How would you cope with a new Trump presidency?
Crikey. I think how would any of us cope with a new Trump presidency? Anybody who has studied American history and the special relationship knows the importance of America. They set the tone, whether it’s sending out ripples of hope or ripples of fear. I think there was a resetting of relations between the US and the world when Biden became the president, from signing up to the Paris Accord to reassuring Nato that the treaty was safe and so forth. It’s quite clear from what Trump’s said he’s interested in revenge. He mainstreams views that are on the periphery.
What’s your message for London’s Jewish community?
I’m your biggest ally. I’m upset, I’m heartbroken, I’m angry. For the past year in particular, there have been many occasions where you’ve not felt safe going about our city. There have been occasions where you’ve been scared to leave your home. I’ve known for many years that if you go to a Jewish faith school, if you go to a certain place of worship, a synagogue, you require extra protection. That can’t be right. Antisemitism is the oldest form of hatred known to mankind and those of us who aren’t Jewish must provide allyship, solidarity, support, empathy and listen.
The most effective Tory leader would be James Cleverly. He brings people together
Why are there two cycle lanes on Park Lane?
The park is closed in the evenings. What we’ve done is increase capacity by having a segregated cycle lane on the road, so pedestrians aren’t in danger of being run over.
Would Grayson Perry make a good Mayor?
He’d be great. I’m not sure what his wife would think about this, by the way, or his daughter, but this guy just gets it.
I’ve always instinctively felt that London is a far more exciting city than New York. Do you agree?
Absolutely. Whenever I’ve seen Mike Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio or Rudy Giuliani, I always say, “It must be great being the mayor of the second-greatest city in the world.”
Regarding Lord Alli, I’m assuming you wouldn’t like another man buying your wife clothes?
Of course nobody buys my clothes or my wife’s clothes, but he’s somebody who supports the Labour Party in a number of ways, who’s worked incredibly hard to be very successful. The taxpayer doesn’t subsidise our politicians, we’ve got to raise money in other ways, and he provides great advice.
Some people think you’re a sex symbol. Discuss.
The people you speak to have great taste.
