00:00 The Mayor's performance on crime has been terrible, particularly on sexual
00:05 offences. We're now catching half as many sexual offenders and rapists as we
00:10 were in 2016 when the Mayor took charge of that. So my key pledge in this manifesto is to double that rate.
00:17 I'll do that by setting up a sexual offences unit in the police and bringing
00:21 more police onto the job, taking them out of the back office, putting them back on
00:25 the front line and focusing them to their time on the crimes that matter to others.
00:30 Your predecessor as candidate, Louisa Porritt, talked about introducing a system of
00:34 road user charging. Why doesn't that feature in the manifesto this time round?
00:38 There's been a lot of change for drivers recently in London and I think the
00:42 system's really got too complex. We just need to what we have to bed in for now
00:46 and really it's not the right time for it.
00:49 The whole idea of road user charging was to simplify, to make it less complex. Would it not do that?
00:53 We're not proposing that. It's not the right time for it.
00:57 Even though the climate crisis has arguably got worse since 2021.
01:01 Road user charging doesn't help the climate crisis. Switching people over to electric cars does.
01:06 That's why we've got a plan in there for more electric car charging so we can accelerate that.
01:11 I was meeting London's taxi drivers yesterday and their biggest challenge in switching over to electric
01:16 is finding fast chargers. Because obviously as a cab driver or delivery driver you drive around all day
01:22 so you need to be able to top up your car with electricity. Those fast chargers are just far too few of them.
01:28 There are just 70 in London that are prioritised for cab drivers and delivery drivers.
01:33 There's obviously over 10,000 electric cabs on the road. We can't get that switch over if we don't make it easier for people.
01:38 We heard from Susan Hall in the last 24 hours that she plans to expand the night tube. Is that a commitment you'll match?
01:44 I love the night tube. It would be great to extend it but first of all we've got to fix tube maintenance.
01:49 There is nothing more frustrating if you're on a tube on your way to work or maybe going to pick up your kids after work
01:56 and it breaks down and you're stuck with all that stress. Night time is a very important time for tubes and tube tracks to be maintained.
02:03 So I would like to extend the night tube but first of all we've got to crack that maintenance problem.
02:08 That's got much worse on the road.
02:10 Would that happen in your first term as Mayor?
02:12 I'd like it to, yes.
02:14 Talk a lot about the polling. You mentioned in your speech there the fact that Susan Hall is way behind Sadiq Khan.
02:19 Is the natural logic of that not that you have even less hope than her of winning?
02:23 Well I'm way up on where we were last time. We've already more than doubled our support in the capital compared to the last election.
02:30 Everyone else is really down. I think we have a great opportunity to go further.
02:34 People are disappointed in the Mayor. They know the Conservatives can't win so it's a great opportunity for us.
02:39 Explain how it's possible for you to win as opposed to Susan Hall who is far ahead of you in the polls.
02:44 Well if we doubled again we'd be well past her.
02:46 How's that going to happen? How are you going to double your support?
02:49 We're getting a clear message out there to people. People are responding well to it.
02:53 We're running one of the biggest campaigns we've ever run in London and people are responding very well to it.
02:57 The Lib Dems haven't held their deposit for over a decade now in this race. What do you put that down to?
03:02 Well I'm running my own campaign obviously and it seems to be doing very well right now.
03:07 We've got a clear message about the Mayor's failures on crime and what we'll do to fix it.
03:12 I think we can move forward in this election with that message.
03:15 Learning from previous mistakes is clearly important. Why did your three previous predecessors fail to cross 5% of the vote?
03:22 The world was different back then. I think right now we're running a great campaign. I'm very happy about how we're doing.
Comments