Conservative candidate Susan Hall launches ‘listening to Londoners’ mayoral campaign

Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall has launched her mayoral campaign with a promise to “listen to Londoners” and to scrap the expansion of the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ).

The Tory hopeful accused Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan of having “ignored” voters in the capital for eight years as she kicked off her bid to run City Hall in Uxbridge on Sunday.

Ms Hall’s priorities include scrapping the expansion of the ULEZ scheme on her first day and building more affordable family homes by reopening the London Plan. She will also bring back the London Land Commission, to identify public sector brownfield land that can be used for housing.

The 69-year-old Assembly member has also pledged to encourage Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) to be removed, and to “remove unnecessary 20mph zones on main Transport for London (TfL)-controlled roads”.

On crime, Ms Hall pledged to “make our streets safe” by recruiting more police officers, returning to borough-based policing, introducing knife detection wands to improve stop-and-search, and by setting up specialist units to tackle robberies and theft.

Speaking on the day of her campaign launch in Uxbridge, Ms Hall said: “Sadiq Khan has ignored Londoners for eight years. If he wins a third term, that would be giving him permission to ignore us again.

 “Crime has spiralled out of control after he shut police stations and failed to recruit police, rents have spiked because he has not built the affordable family homes Londoners deserve, and he has imposed his unfair Ulez expansion tax, hitting the lowest earners the hardest.

 “I am listening to Londoners. My priorities are Londoners’ priorities and as mayor, I will recruit more police, build more affordable homes, and scrap the ULEZ expansion on day one. On May 2, let’s send Sadiq Khan a message and vote for change.”

Recent polling by Savanta for the Centre for London shows that Ms Hall is behind Mr Khan by 24 points.

Out of 1,510 Londoners that were surveyed between March 8 and 12, 51% of voters said they would back Mr Khan against just 27% who said they would vote for Ms Hall, with younger voters and those who are Asian or black overwhelmingly backing the Mayor.

Liberal Democrat Rob Blackie gained 10% of the votes, the Green’s Zoe Garbett 8%, and Reform UK’s Howard Cox 2%.

Last Monday, Mr Khan launched his re-election campaign pledging to double his council homes target to 40,000 while saying the prospect of a Labour government and mayor offered a ‘once in a generation” chance to ease London’s housing crisis.

Mr Khan has promised not to expand the ULEZ scheme further if he returns to the role after May's election.

The zone was widened last August to cover the whole of Greater London, a controversial move overseen by the London mayor.

On the same day as Ms Hall's campaign launch, Mr Khan ruled out increasing the charge if he was re-elected and said there would be no changes to vehicle restrictions.

A spokesperson for Mr Khan said: “This election is a close two-horse race between Sadiq, and the hard-right Conservative candidate who couldn’t be more out of touch with London’s values.

“Sadiq is freezing TfL fares, providing free school meals for primary school children and building a record number of council homes. The Tory candidate cheered Liz Truss’s disastrous mini budget, promoted racist comments by Enoch Powell on social media, and in the last few weeks voted against Sadiq’s plans to freeze TfL fares and provide free school meals.”