Chefs tell Mayor: West End needs your support

DOZENS of leading chefs and restaurateurs today urged Sadiq Khan to “get out on the stump and shout out for London” amid growing evidence of the terrible damage being inflicted on the capital.

Figures including Michelin-starred chefs Michel Roux Jr, Jason Atherton, Angela Hartnett and Tom Kerridge, restaurateurs Yotam Ottolenghi and Trevor Gulliver, as well as Soho House boss Nick Jones, signed an open letter to the Mayor criticising his performance since the end of the lockdown.

The West End and the City are still seeing only a fraction of the usual number of tourists and commuters. The letter, titled “Campaign Until Christmas”, said to Mr Khan “you have not been a source of support” in the struggle to save central London businesses.

It added: “Indeed your (our) agency was advising against travel and was promoting ‘virtual events’ until recently through (taxpayer money) London & Partners. These were hardly the acts of a champion for London... We have damage to repair.”

The letter accused City Hall of adopting a “bunker mentality” and urged the Mayor to drop the congestion charge temporarily.

A spokesman for the Mayor said: “Sadiq is doing everything possible to encourage London’s safe economic recovery… but he will not do anything that risks a disastrous second wave of Covid-19. That would be deeply irresponsible — too many lives are at stake and it would be the worst possible outcome for our economy if we were forced into a second lockdown.”