Big two on the backfoot over road charging and end to free school meals
TORY candidate Susan Hall was forced to defend her plan to restrict free school meals to poorer children in the first TV debate of the 2024 mayoral race.
The ITV London hustings event last night also saw Sadiq Khan claim it was “untrue” that he was planning to introduce pay-per-mile road pricing. His full manifesto is expected to be published tomorrow. Mr Khan also came under attack from Lib-Dem candidate Rob Blackie for the Met police’s failure to catch rapists and sex offenders — and for recycling a failed pledge from the 2021 election to bring in rent controls.
Ms Hall said last week that Mr Khan’s £140 million-a-year scheme to provide free lunches for all London primary school pupils meant that Londoners “on the breadline” could be paying for food “for people who may be millionaires’ children”.
Asked by ITV presenter Charlene White how many children of millionaires were eating for free in state schools, Ms Hall said: “It’s the theory of it — it’s not necessarily millionaires. It’s people who can afford to feed their children.
“That money could be targeted at the kids who really need that, far better than a blanket [scheme].”
Green candidate Zoë Garbett said she wanted to extend free school meals to secondary school children. She also wants to cut the cost of public transport, and suggested the DLR follow the bus network in having a single fare.
Mr Khan, who repeatedly praised the Greens — in a bid to pick up votes from Green supporters wanting to avoid a Tory victory — said Londoners were less likely than people living elsewhere in the country to be a victim of crime. But he admitted the crime rate was “still too high”.
Mr Blackie described the Mayor’s partial fares freeze — which will cost Transport for London £500 million over four years — as a “gimmick” and said the money would be better spent on policing. He said: “The proportion of rapists and sex offenders the police are catching has halved under the Mayor. If I was in his position I would be ashamed.” He challenged
Mr Khan’s assertion that a Labour government would fund an extra 1,300 Met police officers and said the Mayor’s promise to introduce rent controls would never be delivered.
“You said exactly the same thing three years ago,” Mr Blackie said. “I think you need to explain why haven’t you done it?”When Mr Khan replied “because we have got a Conservative Government”, Mr Blackie hit back: “The Labour Party now say they wouldn’t do it either.”
Ms Hall has been accused by Mr Khan of running a “Trumpian-like misinformation campaign”. Labour has asked the Crown Prosecution Service to investigate an election leaflet that suggests he will introduce pay-per-mile road charging. Asked if his next plan was pay-permile, Mr Khan said: “It is untrue.”
IT IS said in politics that if you are explaining, you are losing. If true, Susan Hall has been doing a lot of explaining. At a hustings last night, the Tory candidate for London mayor was forced to defend her wish to restrict free school meals to poorer children. The concept of means-testing benefits is hardly novel or cruel. Sadiq Khan’s free school meals policy is a blunt tool. But it is one that stops children going hungry, even if it means some parents who might be able to afford to pay receive the benefit too. It is a curious hill upon which Hall is electing to die.