Liberal Democrats reveal candidate to tackle Sadiq Khan for London mayor
Rob Blackie stated he’ll put plans to chop the capital’s crime charge on the coronary heart of his battle in opposition to Labour’s Sadiq Khan.
The Met should enhance conviction charges for rape and critical sexual offences as a substitute of focusing sources on “trivial crimes” similar to possession of hashish or laughing gasoline, he stated.
“Sadiq Khan has failed to tackle rape and other serious crimes over the last seven years and Labour are committed to the worst possible priorities for the police – arresting people for laughing gas rather than spending time on serious crimes,” he stated.
“The Conservatives are discredited nationally by their cost of living failures and in London they’ve all but given up.
“For far too long people in London have been let down by Labour and the Conservative plan for London shows that they are not serious about tackling our city’s problems.”
Mr Blackie, from Brixton, spearheaded the award-winning Breaking Putin’s Censorship marketing campaign, which makes use of digital promoting to get impartial news concerning the conflict in Ukraine to folks in Russia.
A life-long Lib Dem, he served as Charles Kennedy’s Director of Research in the course of the Iraq War and has since been a London Assembly candidate at every election since 2012.
He beat Chris French, a former Met particular constable, in a vote with London Lib Dem members to be revealed because the celebration’s candidate at an occasion on the Tate on Friday morning.
In the final three mayoral elections, the celebration has come fourth – behind Labour, the Conservatives and the Green Party – and failed to achieve greater than 5 per cent of the vote, shedding the £10,000 deposit required to run.
The Conservatives earlier chosen Susan Hall as their candidate to tackle Mr Khan.
Liberal Democrats London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon, stated: “Sadiq Khan has taken his eye off the ball when it comes to keeping Londoners safe. The Met Police is in special measures and in London last year there were over 37,000 burglaries reported and yet for one in three, the police didn’t even bother to turn up to investigate.
“The Conservatives have given up on London and are out of touch with a liberal London.
“Rob and the Liberal Democrats will offer the progressive alternative to Labour’s shortcomings whether that is on crime, the environment or London’s economy.”