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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Claudia Cockerell

The hole in Tory mayor candidate Susan Hall's pickpocket story

Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall was the subject of mockery this week after claiming she was pickpocketed on the Tube, even though a member of the public returned the wallet to her — complete with cash and cards — after finding it on a Tube seat. 

Hall told Nick Ferrari on LBC that the theft was a testament to Sadiq Khan’s “out of control” London. While, as The Standard reports today, crime on the Tube has risen, some have noted that Hall’s story is a little tenuous. “London clearly isn’t working if a pickpocket nicked her wallet and then returned it without taking the cash. Which other capital city would accept this level of performance?” joked one wag on X.

But we’ve spotted another hole in the story. As if to dispel the notion that her wallet might have just fallen out, Hall said that the coat she keeps it in has “very, very deep pockets”. Yet the day before she was “targeted”, Hall posted this canvassing pic to X, with her phone dangling out of her — distinctly shallow — coat pocket. 

'Very, very deep pockets' (Susan Hall / X)

We wouldn’t be so bold as to suggest that the wallet tumbled out of that same pocket, before it was spotted by a good Samaritan and returned.

Hall is campaigning to beat Sadiq Khan at the next London Mayoral election, which will be held in May 2024. The Tory hopeful appears gaffe-prone. At the Conservative Party Conference she said she was looking forward to being the “first female Labour Mayor,” before quickly correcting herself.

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