James Cleverly has criticized Sadiq Khan on his record as Mayor of London, accusing him of being “asleep at the wheel” and “failing 10 million people”.
The Home Secretary was speaking at a lunchtime event for journalists on Thursday and was asked to defend Conservative candidate Susan Hall who was accused of canceling several interviews with Times Radio.
But Cleverly – himself a former member of the Greater London Assembly (GLA) – instead mounted a furious broadside against incumbent Labor who are campaigning for a record third term at City Hall.
“People are criticizing Susan for not standing up for scrutiny, yet radio silence with Sadiq Khan,” he said.
“If you look me in the eye and tell me that person has been properly scrutinized by the media in London or otherwise, I turn around and say ‘well, you’re wrong’.
“You (the media) have not done your job well enough when it comes to the Mayor of London… where is the coverage?”
Then he smartly hit on Khan’s record of tackling knife crime and increasing the number of police officers.
He said: “What about the last eight years? Knife crime is coming down across the UK, except, checknotes, London. Police numbers are up across the UK except, again, in London.
The bottom line is that the guy has been asleep at the wheel and made the sometimes powerful clip on social media, where he took aim at Donald Trump when he was president… I’ve heard him talk more about Gaza than about black children being murdered in South East London – unacceptable, unacceptable .”
This is our capital. 10 million people fail, largely unnoticed by the media, and then people turn around and say “oh Susan didn’t set herself up for review”. Nah, nah, I don’t buy that.”
A spokesperson for Khan said City AM: “These are vile comments about the death of children that do not deserve the dignity of a response.”