Sadiq Khan’s council tax increase slammed by Susan Hall
In a scathing attack, independent candidate Brian Rose, warned Mr Khan has failed to reduce crime, build houses and support Transport for London (TfL). Mr Rose, who is regarded as the Mayor’s biggest challenger by some bookies ahead of the election on May 6, accused Mr Khan of allowing TfL to “bleed money”. He also accused the Mayor of blaming the Government for his own failures in the capital over the last four years.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, Mr Rose said: “If Sadiq Khan tries to comment on crime, transport or housing, which are the three things that Londoners care about, there’s not much for him to say, because it’s failure after failure after failure.
“And yet we saw him announced a committee to review statues, we saw him announced some crowdfunding campaign to get people to give money to try to start businesses again.
“He’s bankrupted our city, he’s got no way out.
“Look at the figures, TfL was on the road to bankruptcy before Covid hit, he was not running it like a business, and it was bleeding money.”
Sadiq Khan was accused of bankrupting the city (Image: GETTY/Brian Rose campaign)
Sadiq Khan: The election will take place on May 6 (Image: GETTY)
With the future post coronavirus unknown, Mr Rose, a businessman and entrepreneur, issued his concern if Mr Khan is left in control of the city for the next three years.
He added: “If we have the wrong person at the helm, we’re probably going to be where we are now which one of the worst-performing major cities in the world.
“But if we get on top of this, we could come out better than ever, we could show New York City how to do this, we could show Paris, Madrid, all the major, major cities of the world, how to prioritise the economy.
“Khan is clearly the wrong man for the job. He uses fear as a weapon.
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Sadiq Khan: Brian Rose is a businessman and entrepeneur (Image: Brian Rose)
“He blames the Government for his own failures and he’s asked for billions of bailouts.
“And we’ve seen this repeated over and over again and that’s why that’s why I’m running.”
In 2016, Mr Khan was given £4.82billion by the Government to build 116,000 affordable houses by 2022.
According to the Greater London Authority, he has only started 56,239 as of December 2020.
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Sadiq Khan has been critcised for the rising crime levels (Image: GETTY)
Sadiq Khan was also criticised for TfL’s finances (Image: Brian Rose)
As well as not hitting his housing targets, Mr Khan has also come under severe pressure for the rise in violent crime across the capital.
As of January 2016, reported criminal offences have steadily increased in the capital from 60,913 in January 2016 to 76,258 five years later, according to Met Police figures.
This year alone, 18 people have been killed as of February 26 which is higher than the same period last year according to the Met’s figures.
In order to address the problem, Mr Khan announced last week a plan to invest a further £30million into policing.
That takes his total investment to £1.08billion to ensure more police officers are funded to patrol the streets of the capital.
The current mayor has also come under fire for how TfL’s finances have been run.
TfL, which is run by the Mayor, has been forced to secure a £1.8billion bailout in October which expires in March.
Sadiq Khan: TfL secured two bailouts (Image: GETTY)
That comes on top of a further £1.5billion initial grant last May, which will mean public transport costs will rise by 2.6 percent from March 1.
Sadiq Khan’s office has been contacted for comment by Express.co.uk.
