Sadiq Khan’s office apologises for ignoring ex-deputy mayor issue

The mayor of London’s office has apologised for not investigating concerns about the business dealings of former deputy mayor Rajesh Agrawal.

Agrawal, deputy mayor for business from 2016 to 2023, faced criticism after RationalFX, a foreign exchange firm he co-founded, collapsed in November.

The collapse left customers £14.9 million out of pocket. Agrawal claimed he stopped being active in the company after becoming deputy mayor in 2016 and stepped down as a non-executive director in 2022, though he still owned over half the company, City A.M. reported.

In October 2022, a whistleblower alleged Agrawal was still "very active" in the company and did not disclose this on his register of interests, the newspaper reported. Agrawal denied these claims.

City Hall did not investigate. Richard Watts, Sadiq Khan’s deputy chief of staff, apologised, citing an administrative error. Watts said, “Responsibility for investigating allegations against GLA falls to an individual’s line manager – myself in the case of Rajesh Agrawal. However, your emails were never passed onto me as the appropriate person to investigate.”

Watts added, “The mayor of London’s Office only became aware of your complaints at the end of June. I am sorry indeed therefore about the delay in the GLA replying to you. Your emails should have been brought to my attention much sooner and I share your annoyance that this did not happen.”

Agrawal resigned as deputy mayor last year to run for the Labour East seat in the general election, which he lost, City A.M. reported.

A spokesperson for Agrawal denied he was actively involved in the company after stepping down as CEO, stating, “Any suggestions that Rajesh Agrawal was running the business on a day-to-day basis while serving as deputy mayor are completely false. Rajesh Agrawal stood down as CEO in 2016 and as a non-executive director in 2022. All his interests were properly disclosed.”

A GLA spokesperson said, “The relevant official was only made aware of this complaint in June 2024. The former deputy mayor for Business stepped down from his role in November last year and City Hall is not able to investigate matters concerning former employees.”