With the elections to choose the next London Mayor just over a month away, Sadiq Khan is being afforded the luxury of the Conservatives doing the hard work or him – and their latest campaign advert has proved to be an absolute stinker.
The clip, posted on Twitter/X, attacks Khan and uses footage of a stampede in a New York subway station. The ad for the Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall has been withdrawn, and replaced with a video where the NYC scenes had been cut.
In total, the footage has been community-noted on THREE separate occasions. Among the more ludicrous claims, it also warned of ‘squads of Ulez-enforcers dressed in black’, who ‘terrorise communities on behalf of Labour’s mayoral master’.
The polls will open for Londoners on Thursday 2 May.
Susan Hall has since claimed that she was unaware of the falsehoods in the video, as it was ‘approved by national branches’ of the party. Alas, she took her eye off the ball, and it has presented Khan with an open goal.
The Labour incumbent has hit-out at the disastrous campaign, criticising Hall and her Tory colleagues for being ‘unpatriotic’. He urged his opponent to stop ‘doing London down’, asking her to instead present a clear vision for the city.
“It’s staggering that we have Conservative candidate who is aspiring to be Mayor, who is doing our city down. It’s unpatriotic, slagging off London like that. My fears have materialised, the Tories are peddling lies in their election campaign.”
“Their candidate has a history of ‘making mistakes’ on social media, with her Tweets and likes. She’s trying to walk away from this video, and the Conservatives are trying to hoodwink Londoners with this negative campaign. Just stop it.” | Sadiq Khan
