Hypocrisy to make you fume
‘He flouts them to suit his own selfish needs’
Sadiq Khan unveils a report urging all of us to leave our cars at home to reduce deadly pollution
He takes a gas-guzzling, three-car convoy – with his chauffeur and security guards – to drive 4.5 miles to walk his dog . . . even though there is a huge common close to his street
SADIQ Khan was accused of rank hypocrisy last night after he was pictured using a cavalcade of cars – including a gas-guzzling Jaguar – to take his dog for a walk.
The Labour Mayor of London has railed against car owners for years and has repeatedly badgered drivers to stop taking unnecessary, short journeys.
His office issued an alarming report last Monday warning that car pollution was endangering the lives of 3.1million children in England – and praised the Mayor’s policies to cut emissions.
But three days later, he was seen being driven with his wife Saadiya and dog Luna in a convoy of three vehicles, including a £75,000 Jaguar with a fivelitre petrol engine, a £50,000 diesel Volkswagen Caravelle people-carrier, and a Volvo hybrid SUV worth £50,000.
Staggeringly, the Mayor was driven to Battersea Park – despite living just a few hundred yards from one of London’s largest commons in Tooting.
Two days earlier, Mr Khan criticised car journeys, tweeting: ‘Time is running out to stop a climate catastrophe – and London’s road to recovery from the pandemic cannot be clogged by cars.’
Mr Khan, 50, set out for his walk on Thursday afternoon with his wife and labrador, before he was seen in the diesel-powered VW. The Jaguar, which clocks up just 13.8 miles to the gallon in the city, was with the Caravelle, which does 36 miles per gallon. The hybrid Volvo was at the head of the fleet.
In heavy traffic, the cars crawled past Tooting Bec Common and began a bumper-to-bumper journey through South London towards Battersea that lasted 25 minutes. The 4.5-mile journey would have taken the Mayor along some of the capital’s most congested roads before arriving at Battersea Park at 2.25pm. Later, the Mayor, his wife and the dog were ferried back in heavy rush-hour traffic.
The vehicles would have belched an estimated 14kg of carbon dioxide into the air for the nine-mile round-trip, according to fuel calculators – which will take a tree eight months to absorb. The cars are all police vehicles.
Mr Khan’s trip to walk his dog would have cost taxpayers an estimated £1,500 once the cost of his five-strong protection team and use of the vehicles is factored in.
Mr Khan, who is paid £152,000 a year, is the son of a London bus driver and has continuously called on drivers to leave their cars at home and take public transport, or walk and cycle short journeys.
His crusade to cut pollution has led to plans to widen London’s low emission zone (ULEZ) in October to charge £12.50 a day for older, polluting vehicles to drive into the centre of the city.
Last year, Mr Khan raised the Congestion Charge by 30 per cent from £11.50 to £15 a day and extended it to include weekends.
He was first elected in 2016 and won a second term in May, promising to cut air pollution in the capital by slashing the number of vehicles on the roads. In April, Mr Khan told a Sunday newspaper: ‘Where you can give up using cars, I would encourage that.’
Howard Cox, of campaign group
Fair Fuel UK, said: ‘Mr Khan... knows no indignity in making others comply with his transport proclamations while he flouts them to suit his own selfish needs.’
Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay, who chairs a parliamentary group representing road users, questioned why Mr Khan would choose to be driven to Battersea Park ‘when he has a good area of common land near where he lives’.
He added: ‘The thought that he has a fleet of not the most environmentally friendly vehicles despite telling us all what we should and should not be doing smacks of complete and utter hypocrisy.’
Mr Khan was criticised last year for using a £300,000 bulletproof
Range Rover Sentinel to chauffeur him to work in City Hall.
Susan Hall, leader of the Conservatives at the Greater London Authority, said: ‘When it comes to Khan’s war on motorists, it’s do as I say, not as I do.’
A spokesman for the Mayor’s office said: ‘The Mayor of London receives round-the-clock protection from the Metropolitan Police in line with the assessed threat to his safety.’