00:00London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been warned that his promise to create swimmable rivers in
00:06the capital by 2034 must not encourage people to swim in the dangerous tides of the Thames.
00:13The mayor was re-elected last year on a manifesto which pledged he would launch an ambitious
00:18plan to make rivers in London swimmable within 10 years. A senior official at the Port of
00:24London Authority, which manages a tidal section of the Thames, said the way in which the plan
00:30had been summarised in media headlines had caused concern. A spokeswoman for Sir Sadiq
00:36said the tidal part of the Thames would never be safe to swim in, but the mayor was committed
00:41to cleaning up areas where swimming would be safe. But if the River Thames was clean,
00:47would Londoners want to swim in it?
01:17I think it could be dangerous because of currents. In principle, it's good, but I think it might be a bit dangerous.
01:35Well, I think it's disgusting. I think it's disgusting how a lot of our publicly owned companies have sold off.
01:44And despite the fact that pollution is absolutely rife, there are so many thousands of incidents of pollution,
01:54shareholders are still collecting dividends. It's wrong.
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