Refreshing Labour’s Mayoral Manifesto for May 2021

Introduction

London has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Thousands of people have lost their lives, and thousands are out of work as a result of the economic fallout. The city is facing a crisis with impacts on a scale not seen since the Blitz, and the strong leadership of a Labour Mayor is going to be even more important as London looks to the future. 

Time and again during this crisis, the Tory Government has let down Londoners. The list of Government failures is long – the delay in going into lockdown in March 2020, the failure to provide personal protective equipment to frontline workers, the inability to put in place a functioning test, trace and isolate system, the dithering and delay over recent school closures and the thousands of Londoners left without any financial support from the Government. Overlaid on this is the on-going anti-London bias of this Tory Government, seen very visibly in the unfairly punishing financial support package for Transport for London (TfL), compared to the favourable, no strings attached, bailout for privately run rail companies.

Sadiq’s leadership of London  

Sadiq has fought tirelessly on behalf of all Londoners during this crisis. He has used his platform as Mayor to argue for the support the city needs and has campaigned to protect London from the damage the Tory Government is causing. 

Sadiq is leading the city’s response to the pandemic from City Hall and together with partners in Labour councils, trade unions and the voluntary sector he has taken important action including:

• Safely accommodating thousands of rough sleepers by securing hotel rooms for them to socially-isolate in when the nation went into lockdown.
• Setting up the £2.3m culture at risk fund to support venues and organisations in our culture and creative sector that has been so heavily impacted by Covid-19.
• Launching the Pay it Forward London scheme that has allowed Londoners to support their local independent businesses by raising over £1.5 million, matching contributions through his own Back to Business Fund.
• Offering over £1.1m in grants to small and medium-sized businesses to help them respond to the Covid crisis, through the London Business Hub.
• Using his new £1m London Resilience Fund to support innovation that will help businesses and civil society through the crisis, and make them better equipped for the future.
• Developing skills and advice services for businesses, including the Recover and Grow skills programme, the Property Advice Service for small and medium-sized businesses, and Peer Networks business learning sessions.

As well as leading the response to the pandemic Sadiq has continued to lay the foundations for a cleaner, greener and fairer city including:

• Establishing a London Recovery Board, bringing together local councils, trade unions, business, the NHS, police and voluntary groups, to lead the city out of the pandemic and address long-standing challenges facing London.
• Investing £10m in a Green New Deal for London to create thousands of jobs in the green economy and tackle our air quality and climate crisis.
• Improving the trust and confidence of London’s communities in its police force by launching a police and community action plan, designed in partnership with Londoners.
• Leading the fight against racism from City Hall by setting up a new commission for diversity in the public realm to help ensure the capital’s population and history are celebrated and commemorated.

It is clear that a major focus of the next Mayor’s agenda will be on the recovery of the city from Covid-19. It is absolutely crucial for all Londoners that it is a Labour Mayor leading the city during this critical period.

Involving Party members in the manifesto process

Last winter, members and affiliates were involved in an extensive consultation to help shape Sadiq’s manifesto for the Mayoral election. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government postponed the election for a year from May 2020 to May 2021. To supplement that important consultation, London Labour are seeking the input of party members in shaping the platform on which Sadiq Khan will seek re-election as Labour Mayor in May 2021. We particularly want to hear your views on what the recovery priorities should be for Labour in London, on which areas of policy you favour more of a focus and how you think Labour can help build a greener, fairer and safer London. You can read about the Mayor’s powers here.

It is worth noting the background to the Mayoral election in May 2021. Should Sadiq be re-elected, it is likely there will be Tory Government in Westminster for the whole of his second term. The next Mayoral term will only last 3 years until May 2024. There will be significantly less money available for the Mayor to spend because of the Tory Government’s broken promise to cover the cost of responding to the pandemic. The Tories have failed time after time in recent years to persuade the voters of London to support them. Now they’ve given up. These days Tories in Government stir up anti-London sentiment and hatred of our city’s values to score advantage in other parts of the country. Londoners deserve better. They deserve a strong Labour Mayor standing up for their city.

Your input is really important as we shape the Labour manifesto. Please complete the survey by 11:59pm on Friday 12 February.

This survey is now closed.