Susan Hall introduced as Conservative candidate for London mayor
Susan Hall has been chosen because the Conservative candidate for London mayor.
She will face the present mayor, Sadiq Khan, when the following election is held in May 2024.
Ms Hall, who has served on the London Assembly since 2017, gained the race with 57% of the vote, in contrast with 43% for her opponent, Mozammel Hossain.
In an announcement, Ms Hall stated it was a “huge honour to be the Conservative candidate for mayor of London”.
“I am so grateful to everyone for their support,” she stated.
“I would also like to pay tribute to Moz for his positive and hard-fought campaign. Over the coming months, I will work tirelessly to defeat Sadiq Khan and offer Londoners the change we need.”
Read extra: Susan Hall – Salon owner turned mayoral candidate
Conservative Party chair Greg Hands welcomed Ms Hall’s victory, saying she had “the vision and vigour to take the fight to Sadiq Khan”.
He added: “Both candidates ran excellent campaigns and I want to thank them for their hard work and dedication to the people of London. Now we unite behind Susan, working together to get this incredible city back on track.”
Ms Hall introduced she was operating for London mayor on a platform of security – and claimed she was “the candidate Sadiq Khan fears the most”.
Tackling crime, the housing disaster and ULEZ have been all excessive on Ms Hall’s listing of priorities. She additionally pledged to “hunt down and lock up” muggers and burglars by making a particular staff throughout the Metropolitan Police.
The Tory contest was a two-horse race between Ms Hall and Mr Hossain after the third candidate, Daniel Korski, quit the contest final month after a TV producer accused him of groping her a decade in the past – an allegation he strenuously denies.
At the time, Ms Hall stated Mr Korski “fought a hard campaign with lots of fresh ideas” however that the allegations towards him have been “serious and it is right that they are investigated in the proper way”.
London Labour described Ms Hall as a “hard-right politician who couldn’t be more out of touch with our city and its values”.
A spokesperson stated: “She’s an outspoken supporter of Trump, Boris Johnson and a hard Brexit. She cheered Liz Truss’s mini-budget, which sent mortgages and rents soaring. She doesn’t stand up for women. And she hates London’s diversity.
“Londoners deserve higher than a candidate who represents the worst of the Tory failure and incompetence over the past 13 years.
“The London election next year will be a two-horse race and the choice is clear – a Labour mayor with a positive vision who will continue to build a fairer, greener and safer London for everyone, or the extreme Tory candidate, who stands for cuts to London’s public services, inequality and division. The Tories have failed the country. They can’t be trusted to run London.”
Sadiq Khan
Who is Susan Hall?
Ms Hall is from Harrow in northwest London, the place she owns a hair salon and raised her household.
She labored in her father’s storage after ending faculty and stated she initially wished to be a mechanic however struggled to get into technical school as a girl.
She was elected to Harrow Council in 2006 and went on to steer the council from 2013 to 2014.
In 2017 she was elected to the London Assembly, changing now cupboard minister Kemi Badenoch after she took up her seat in parliament.
She grew to become deputy chief for the London Assembly Conservatives in 2018 and served as chief from 2019 to 2023.
Analysis: Result will probably be reduction for Tories
For many citizens, the response to the Conservatives’ London mayoral candidate Susan Hall could also be: Susan Who?
Ms Hall has been a member of the London Assembly for 5 years and beforehand served because the Conservative group chief.
Mozammel Hossain, the defeated candidate, was even much less well-known – a legal barrister with no earlier political expertise in any respect.
But maybe the dearth of fame might show to be a bonus in a contest towards Labour’s Sadiq Khan, one of many UK’s most well-known politicians – and more and more infamous with some voters indignant about his plans to increase ULEZ to all London boroughs on the finish of August.
Mr Khan, bidding for his third time period in workplace, argues the coverage is required to battle air air pollution and shield Londoners’ well being. It means individuals must pay £12.50 a day to drive outdated polluting automobiles and is prone to be the important thing battleground of the mayoral election subsequent May.
Ms Hall has promised to halt ULEZ growth on day one.
The Conservatives’ efforts to decide on a candidate has been bumpy.
Paul Scully, the minister for London, had broadly been seen because the Tory frontrunner however wasn’t shortlisted (maybe as a result of Rishi Sunak may ill-afford one more by-election in an suburban seat, Sutton and Cheam, which had beforehand been a Liberal Democrat stronghold).
The third shortlisted candidate, former Downing Street advisor Daniel Korski, needed to stop the race final month, after he was accused of groping a TV producer a decade in the past. He denies the declare.
After all of the turmoil the Conservatives will probably be glad to have settled on a contemporary candidate to rally round.