WHY LONDONERS SHOULD NOT VOTE FOR SADIQ KHAN ON MAY 5TH

I joined Labour in 1997 because they’d shown they could be trusted with the British economy. Blair and Brown believed in a strong private sector. They knew you could only afford to pay for good schools and a decent NHS if you let businesses get on with delivering jobs and growth. Sure, the party had some loony lefties; one of them even became Mayor of London. But with that one exception, they weren’t in a position to do any damage. 

Then Labour lost power, and after five years of Miliband the anti-business rot set in. It’s why I tore up my membership card after the General Election. I did it long before Corbyn was elected as the new leader. I, like many others, didn’t see him coming but wow, was I right to run never mind walk away?! Now, under Corbyn, the lunatics have truly taken over the asylum. His ambition is to drag Britain back to the 1970s – union blackmail and three-day weeks, when our best and brightest were leaving the country in droves. Militants, Trots, anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers all seem to have been welcomed into Labour with open arms.

There is one politician who’s responsible for what’s happened to the party. Labour’s candidate for London Mayor, Sadiq Khan. Khan ran Ed Miliband’s leadership campaign. He was in the room when Miliband turned on people like me, attacking the country’s largest employers as ‘predators’, as well as Corbyn who famously called Britain’s businesses the real enemy.

Khan was one of the most senior Labour politicians to nominate Corbyn for leader. Without Khan’s endorsement, Corbyn would never have made it onto the ballot. He’s confirmed that Corbyn will be an asset to his campaign to become Mayor, and admitted Corbyn’s supporters will help him get elected. Khan has never voted against Corbyn in Parliament since Corbyn became leader. The point being, no one should be fooled by Khan’s stance that he will be totally independent as mayor of London and not influenced by Corbyn. Amazingly, despite the crazy plans to print money to pay for public spending, the Christmas-card list that includes Hamas and the IRA, Khan says he has no regrets about giving Corbyn the top job. Be under no illusion, they are two peas in a pod. Clearly not the dynamic duo of Batman and Robin; more like Laurel and Hardy.

I would say Khan has single-handedly wrecked the Labour Party, and now he’s turning his finely honed judgment on the great city of London. Khan claims he’ll be the most pro-business Mayor ever. He’s been touring City boardrooms trying to pass himself off as a successful entrepreneur. In fact his only claim to fame is that he helped run a legal aid firm which seems to have made most of its money from suing the police. No problem with that if there are justifiable reasons, but that, mainly, is his background – not business.

Funnily enough, such ‘friends’ of free enterprise as Ken Livingstone and the Socialist Workers’ Party have given him their backing, and Corbyn’s private army of left-wing fanatics are out knocking on doors on his behalf.

You don’t pick up that kind of support if you’re offering sensible, realistic policies. So I thought I’d take a look at Khan’s plan for London… except it’s not a plan at all. It’s a wish list straight out Corbyn’s and Livingstone’s little red book. He’s claiming he can a deliver a massive programme of transport investment – new bridges, roads and railways – all without costing passengers a penny. As a mad football supporter, the term ‘fantasy football’ comes to mind, though in Khan’s case it should be labelled ‘fantasy fare freeze’. He’s promising to magically freeze fares for four years. TFL have confirmed that London will face a £1.9billion black hole under Khan, and the only way to clear that is by Council Tax for London households rising, with less of the money raised from Council Tax being spent on the police and other services.

Then another genius idea relates to housing policy. This consists of asking developers to build new homes at a loss. Khan’s plan is to grant consent to developers only if they agree to build 50% as genuine affordable housing. Well this sounds all very nice, but it’s another false promise that won’t happen. Commercially it doesn’t work. Yes you can introduce this new regulation but the effect will be that no development takes place, meaning no jobs for construction workers and no commercial incentive for employers to employ a whole spectrum of staff. The bottom line is: 50% of nothing is nothing.

Khan is proposing to bring the unions into City Hall to help advise him on business. What do they know about business? It’s Groundhog Day all over again. Ken Livingstone ran for election on an almost identical platform. The result was higher Council Tax, unions in the driving seat, housing targets missed, fares going up and a massive waste of taxpayers’ money.

Maybe I’m missing the point. As far as I can tell, Khan’s main offer to London voters isn’t his policies; it’s that he’s the Muslim son of a bus driver. Ok the boy’s done good – well done! I myself am a working-class Jewish boy from the East End; the son of factory tailor who never knew where his next day of work was coming from. But that was not a reason why people invested in me and my public companies. In business you make your decision based on the quality of results and performance, not on a feelgood sob story from the person selling it.

London is the envy of the commercial world, one of the most famous trading cities in the world. Its heritage dates as far back as when the Cutty Sark was in use! It’s a central hub of business for so many companies both domestic and overseas. It is bad enough in June we have the EU debate making companies both home and abroad nervous. (By the way, this is nonsense – we must not exit.) We must not add more uncertainty and nervousness to the future of our great City by even contemplating placing it in the hands of Mr Khan with his Corbyn-style policies.

On May 5th I would strongly urge Londoners not to vote for Khan.