We’re having a Mayor-off

Next Thursday, Londoners go to the polls to vote in their new Mayor of London. Twice-elected Conservative Boris Johnson has moved onto bigger and better things, and now Labour’s Sadiq Khan and the Conservative Zac Goldsmith are going head to head below in this: our comparison of the two frontrunners.

Not discussed here are the Green party’s Siân Berry or the Lib Dem Caroline Pidgeon, because we’re being realistic.

As usual, it’s very freaking difficult to find any information in the run up to elections about politicians’ actual policies with specific figures to back them up. We’ve tried to do our best. What we have covered is both candidates’ fuck-ups, upbringings and what they were doing before they became MPs. Does knowing the eastbound route of the central line make you a better mayoral candidate? That’s for you to decide, friends.

Zac Goldsmith

Fuck-ups

So far in this campaign, Zac’s been accused of wading into race relations with all the subtlety of, well, a white guy from Eton wading into race relations.

It all started when Goldsmith’s campaign team sent leaflets out to London’s Tamil and Indian residents based on their surnames. The Tamil-targeted leaflet warned recipients that Khan hadn’t used “his position to speak about Sri Lanka of the Tamil community in Parliament”. The text was slightly changed for the leaflet targeting Indians, which talked about Jeremy Corbyn wanting to ban Indian PM Modi from the UK. The Goldsmith camp told voters it had identified as Hindu that Zac would champion family-owned businesses, and protect them from Labour’s “wealth tax on family jewellery”. As well as buying into pretty tired racial stereotypes, the surname-based implementation of these leaflets left Sikhs getting leaflets aimed at Hindus. Many branded the attempt at securing the ‘ethnic’ London vote patronising and ill-informed.

On more light-hearted territory, a super awkward video of Goldsmith being interviewed by the BBC in the back of the cab surfaced a few weeks ago, and was a bit of headache for the Conservative candidate. He stumbled over questions about what football teams play at what stadiums, where the British Museum was, and didn’t know which stop came after Tottenham Court Road on the central line (Holborn by the way). In his defense, he said he only ever takes two routes on the underground, and relies on Citymapper.

Upbringing

He went to Eton (duh), doesn’t have a degree and his father was a knight. Policies

One of Goldsmith’s biggest boasts is that he’ll wangle better deals for London from his compatriots in the Conservative government.

He’s also promising to double house building in the capital, put 500 extra police officers on the tube and create “more green spaces”.

History

Despite being chums with Boris, Zac has a bit of a reputation for not quite toeing the party line. Against the whip, he’s voted for terminally ill people being allowed to end their lives, creating financial incentives for low carbon emission electricity generation, and various cases for constitutional reform.

He was Editor of The Ecologist magazine (a publication founded by his uncle) before reviewing environmental policy for the Conservatives. In 2010 he followed two of his grandfathers in becoming an MP.

Before standing for Mayor, Goldsmith sent out a ballot at his own expense asking his constituents whether they would be happy with him running for this second role. With a stunning majority, they consented. Like Boris, he is pro-Brexit.

Sadiq Khan

Fuck-ups

A pretty scary 20-year-old video of Khan’s ex-brother-in-law shouting about the evils of the west surfaced online earlier this year. The man in question, who hasn’t seen Khan in years, is now a high-flying media lawyer and dismisses the video as dated but foolish.

Another accusation of connections to extremists came when it was discovered Khan had “shared a platform” with an organisation backed by extremist imam who recruited for al-Qaeda, whilst speaking out against the UK’s extradition deal with the US in 2005. Both Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith were against this extradition arrangement at the time, but did not attend said event. Khan has since distanced himself from the groups, saying the events he spoke out had nothing to do with the “vile” organisation.

While Goldsmith’s camp continued to find extremist ‘links’, Khan’s sassy social media team reacted by not shying away from his faith. An example from his Twitter page: “Hey @ZacGoldsmith. There’s no need to keep pointing at me and shouting ‘he’s a Muslim.’ I put it on my own leaflets.”

Upbringing

His dad was a bus driver (he talks about this a lot). His parents were Pakistani immigrants, and he grew up in his constituency.

Policies

As many a wannabe London Mayor has proposed, Khan is a fan of the £1.50 hour bus ticket, so you wouldn’t be penalised for taking a couple of short trips on buses in a row. He’s also promising a four year freeze on tube and bus fares.

As far as housing, one of the most contentious points in this election, Khan is proposing a ‘London Living Rent’ based on the value of a third of local income. Probably not very promising if you’re living in the nice side of Fulham, though.

History

Khan was a solicitor and chair of human rights group Liberty, and then became a Labour councillor before his MP stardom. He used to be the Labour whip and manned Ed Miliband's party leadership campaign. He was one of the 35 MPs who nominated old Jezza Corbyn for party leadership last year, but didn’t vote for him in the end.

According to theyworkforyou.com he has consistently voted against university tuition fees and as for the answer to the question we ask of all Labour candidates in a post-Blairite world, he voted against the war in Iraq.

Last time Labour were in power he was transport secretary but now he’s a plain old shadow minister and MP for Tooting.

Since we discovered last year that polls can’t really be relied on, the race has become a lot more interesting. Current forecasts do predict a win for Khan and despite Labour’s poor performance in last year’s general election, the party saw a seven seat gain in the capital, and now has MPs in 45 of London’s 73 seats.

The deadline for voter registration has now passed, but it’s pretty easy to check if you are registered to vote in Thursday’s elections if you haven’t received a polling card in the post. Go to aboutmyvote.co.uk, hammer in your term-time postcode, and they’ll give you your local electoral registration office and all of its contact details. Then all you need to do is call or email to check you're on their list.