Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Rob Blackie has vowed he is “up for this fight” as he launched his campaign for City Hall with a pledge to take on Sadiq Khan and Susan Hall.
Blackie, who runs a business advising start-up tech companies, launched his campaign in Brixton this morning and revealed his “top priority is crime and policing.”
The former advisor to Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy told campaigners: “Make no mistake, the Liberal Democrats are up for this fight.
“Because Sadiq Khan does not deserve a third term – and even the Conservatives don’t believe Susan Hall has any chance of beating him.
“She is an ardent supporter of Trump and Truss. These forms of politics have no place in our capital. And if you look at every poll, Conservative support is plummeting in London, while Liberal Democrat support is double what we got in 2021 already.
“There has never been a better time for a strong, distinctive campaign in London.”
The pro-EU Lib Dems are currently ranking at 10 per cent in national voting intention polls – below the pro-Brexit Reform UK party who are sitting at around 12 per cent.
While the party also lost their deposits in the recent Kingswood and Wellingborough by-elections.
Sadiq Khan – who is campaigning for a record third term as London mayor – has already called on progressive voters who might back the Lib Dems or the Greens to lend their votes to him ahead of the first mayoral election held under the first-past-the-post voting system.
Blackie also said his top priority is the Met Police and said Khan does “not deserve” a third term due to his record on crime.
The 50-year-old told how his neck was broken in a vicious gang mugging in Vauxhall.
“Khan’s failure on those issues is the main reason I am standing against him,” he said.
“Violent crime has risen by 30 per cent in London since he has been in office. Sexual offence clear-up rates have halved in the last eight years.”
He added a police officer told Baroness Casey, who reviewed the Met after the murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens: “‘If you look at our performance around rape, serious sexual offences, the detection rate is so low you may as well say it’s legal in London.’
“Just let that sink in… ‘You may as well say it’s legal in London.’ It is just shameful.”
He added: “Sadiq Khan blames everyone else for this but himself. The buck stops with him and we will call him out in this campaign.”
Blackie also said Conservative candidate and former City Hall Tory group leader Susan Hall was “beyond the pale”.
He added: “Far from embracing London, she attacks it. Liking tweets that call our city Londonistan and venerate Enoch Powell. Does she even like London?
“She certainly doesn’t love our great city. When the Conservatives chose her as their candidate, they gave up on this election.”