Susan Hall has been elected as the Conservatives’ candidate to run for mayor of London. It was announced, on Wednesday (19) morning, Hall had defeated her rival Moz Hossain, winning 57 per cent of the vote, against his 43 per cent, reports Noah Vickers.
Hall, who will go up against Labour mayor Sadiq Khan at the election in May 2024, said she was “absolutely delighted and so grateful” to have secured the nomination.
“This cannot be like any mayoral election we have run before,” she told an audience of Conservative activists at the Battle of Britain Bunker, in Uxbridge.
“It is not enough just to say things that appeal outside our core vote. We have to show that we share the values of everyday Londoners.
“Working hard to provide for your family, being honest about who you are and what you believe, acting selflessly in the interests of others.
“Those are my values. Those are Conservative values. And those are Londoners’ values.”
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, she said: “I will win this, I will definitely win this. I’m determined. Londoners deserve a lot better than they’ve got at the moment, and my goodness they’ll get it with me.”
Asked about the fact that Labour are about 20 points ahead nationally in the polls, she said: “I’m just concentrating on London.
“Sadiq Khan has been in charge now for seven years. He has let Londoners down very, very badly, and Londoners know that. So, I think London is slightly different.”
Hall has said her “passion is policing”. She has pledged to invest £200m in the Met Police “to tackle the scourge of knives, modernise the police to use the latest artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology, and work to dismantle the gangs and organised crime networks that ruin so many lives”.
She has also said she will on “day one” scrap Khan’s “disastrous” plan to expand the Ultra low emission zone (Ulez), meaning that outer London would not be covered by the zone.
Hall plans to abolish 20mph limits from the capital’s main roads, while retaining the limit in residential areas and around schools.
She has also pledged to “build a lot more homes in the right places” and says that she would move away from high rise tower blocks full of one and two-bedroom flats to “high density, low rise” family homes, promising residents their “own front door and patch of garden, even if it is just a postage stamp”.
(Local Democracy Reporting Service)
Apsana Begum
