00:00I'm a born and brought up Londoner. I was born in Lewisham Hospital. I, you know, grown up in the
00:05city. I've had my family in the city. I first elected to London city government. I started a business in
00:11London. London has given me so much of what I value both personally and professionally. It is an absolutely amazing
00:20city. It is a wonderful global city, but it has not had the political leadership that it deserves over the
00:27last, over the last 10 years.
00:30And, and when I ask people, you know, do they feel safer on the streets of London than they did
00:3410 years ago? They don't say yes. When I ask Londoners, do they feel that they're, you know, either themselves
00:42or their families can make a life of themselves in London, afford to live in London? Increasingly, they don't think
00:47they can. When I asked, do they feel proud of London? They feel less proud than they did 10 years
00:52ago. And it's not good enough. And I decided that I'm not just going to snipe from the sidelines.
00:59I'm going to make what was, what was a big decision for me, which is step away from parliament and,
01:05and put myself forward to be the mayor of the greatest city on earth, because it matters.
01:13And it matters that we get London heading back in the right direction. We address those problems. And you can't
01:18do this half-heartedly. So that's why I made it very clear, stepping away from the shadow cabinet, not running
01:23for parliament again.
01:24I am all in, 100% committed to make London the best city in the world.
01:29I'm afraid, I think you might have just committed new there, James. You're saying that you're not going to be
01:32standing for Braintree at the next general election.
01:34I'm, I've, I've, I've, I've had that conversation with my association.
01:38Uh, I've, I've said I'm completely committed to this. There's no, uh, there's, there's no parachute. There's no, there's no
01:46plan B.
01:46I am totally focused because frankly, when, when London is firing on all cylinders, it has not just a national
01:56impact, but a global impact.
01:59London is not campaign, not competing with Manchester. Despite what Andy Burnham thinks, London is not competing with Manchester.
02:05It's not competing with Birmingham or Edinburgh or Cardiff or, or, or, or Belfast or York or wherever.
02:10As you say in your introduction, London is competing with Paris and Milan and New York and Dubai.
02:17The best thing that Andy Burnham can do for Manchester, the most effective Manchesterism policy that he could come up
02:25with, is to let London thrive.
02:28That is the best thing that can happen for Manchester. And I want to be part of making that happen.
02:32When people are worried about crime, showing them a bar chart is not the right answer.
02:38The right answer is getting police in the public realm, getting, getting good people using the nighttime economy.
02:45So that our streets at night are full of people who are happy, smiling rather than empty from everyone other
02:55than people who like, even if they're not involved in criminal activity, when the public realm is devoid of people,
03:03particularly where it should be buzzy and exciting, that is really intimidating.
03:07And, and, and, and the final point on this, the government's relentless attack on the hospitality industry is ironically enough,
03:16also having a really detrimental effect on people's perception of the safety of the public realm.
03:21I want people out and about, good people enjoying themselves, visibly enjoying themselves.
03:26Because, funnily enough, you know, crowds, happy, positive crowds, are remarkably self-policing.
03:34And that's why the nighttime economy is very, very important when it comes to public safety.
03:38And, absolutely.
03:40You
