Category Archives: Sadiq Khan

TfL funding deal means tube fares must rise and bus services be cut

Posted on by

Sadiq Khan accepts ‘far from ideal’ settlement but says it secures long-term future for transport network

Tube fares will rise and more bus services will be cut in the capital, the mayor, Sadiq Khan, warned, after Transport for London agreed to accept a £1.2bn funding settlement from the government.

The deal, slightly improved from a “final offer” made in July by the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, was welcomed by TfL as allowing it to avert the “managed decline” of its transport network.

Continue reading...

Bohra imam’s visit puts British girls at risk of mutilation, warn FGM campaigners

Posted on by

Dawoodi Bohra leader Mufaddal Saifuddin, who is in the UK to preach, is an advocate of the abusive practice whose visa should be revoked, say activists

Campaigners have criticised the UK government for granting a visa to a religious leader who has advocated for female genital mutilation (FGM).

Mufaddal Saifuddin who is the syedna, or leader, of the Dawoodi Bohra community, a sect of Shia Islam with 1.2 million followers worldwide, will give sermons in front of tens of thousands of people at Northolt mosque in London between 29 July and 7 August.

Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss facing Tory members in Leeds for first official leadership hustings – UK politics live

Posted on by

Leadership rivals bid to win members’ support in foreign secretary’s home town

Drug-related deaths in Scotland fell by nine in 2021, according to the latest figures released by National Records of Scotland, the first decrease since 2013 but falling well short of the significant reduction that campaigners are calling for.

The latest figure of 1,330 is still the second highest annual total on record, and Scotland continues to have by far the highest drug death rate recorded by any country in Europe and five times the rate in England.

We’ve had a raft of reports, policies and strategies that say what needs to change, and families are more likely to be included round the table, but it’s much harder to track their influence on the ground. We don’t understand what’s getting in the way of good words becoming good deeds.

1,330 of our fellow Scots have died entirely preventable deaths and we should not be celebrating this as an achievement ... The solutions are no secret. We need action, not reports with recommendations that are never implemented.

Continue reading...

More than 1m trips made on central section of Elizabeth line

Posted on by

Newly completed Crossrail project has also seen more than 2m journeys across the entire network, Transport for London says

More than 1m journeys have been made on the central section of London’s Elizabeth line in the first five days of its opening.

Across the entire railway – which spans from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east – more than 2m trips have been made, Transport for London said.

Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan launches commission to examine cannabis legality

Posted on by

Mayor of London says panel of experts will consider effectiveness of UK policies on non-class A drugs

Sadiq Khan has announced a commission to examine the effectiveness of the UK’s drug laws, with a particular focus on those governing cannabis.

The London drugs commission, to be chaired by Lord Charlie Falconer QC, a former lord chancellor and justice secretary, was one of Khan’s manifesto pledges in his re-election bid last year.

Continue reading...

Crossrail: much-delayed Elizabeth line to open on 24 May

Posted on by

Tunnelled section of £19bn project through centre of London finally ready for passengers

London’s Elizabeth line is to open on 24 May, it has been announced, with the long-delayed tunnelled central section of the £19bn Crossrail project now ready for passengers.

Transport for London (TfL) said the line would open, subject to final safety approvals, the week prior to the Queen’s jubilee celebrations.

Continue reading...

At least 40% of child-to-parent violence in UK unreported, study finds

Posted on by

Rate of abuse against parents is highest among 19- to 25-year-olds and most perpetrators are male

At least 40% of child-to-parent violence and abuse incidents are unreported to police, according to research.

The study into the “hidden harm” commissioned by the London mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) found that the rate of violence and abuse against parents and carers was highest among those aged 19-25, and 81% of perpetrators were male.

Continue reading...

Cressida Dick to leave Met police with £166,000 payoff

Posted on by

Met commissioner to step down on 10 April, with search for replacement expected to take months

Cressida Dick will leave her role as commissioner of the Metropolitan police with a payoff of £166,000, the Guardian understands.

Dick announced her resignation in February after clashing with the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. She officially ceases to be commissioner on 24 April.

Continue reading...

Goverment agrees to review of how Cressida Dick was ousted as Met chief

Posted on by

Review may look at communications between police and City Hall after clash with Sadiq Khan but will not ‘change any outcomes’

Cressida Dick has won a victory after the government agreed to a review of how she came to leave office after a clash with the London mayor, Sadiq Khan.

The Home Office is expected to announce it will ask Sir Tom Winsor to examine how Dick came to be ousted as commissioner of the Metropolitan police last month, a government source confirmed.

Continue reading...

Met police admit tweet critical of Sadiq Khan was unacceptable

Posted on by

London mayor denies claim he gave Cressida Dick ultimatum over Charing Cross officers

Scotland Yard has been forced to admit it was “unacceptable” for one of its official Twitter accounts to apparently criticise the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, leading him to accuse the force of amplifying misleading information.

Khan tackled the suggestion – made in a now-deleted tweet by the verified “Metropolitan Police taskforce” – that he did not understand the rules for disciplining officers.

Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan pledges to end toxic culture at Met police and signals showdown with Priti Patel

Posted on by

The London mayor vows to oppose anyone who fails to understand deep problems at beleagured force, in wake of Cressida Dick resignation

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, today sets the stage for a dramatic showdown with the home secretary, Priti Patel, over who should be the next Metropolitan police commissioner as he vows to oppose anyone who does not understand the deep “cultural problems” within the beleaguered force.

Writing in the Observer, three days after his intervention forced Cressida Dick to abruptly resign, Khan says recent revelations of officers bragging about violence towards women and exchanging racist and Islamophobic messages rekindled personal memories of the “bad old days of the Met” during his own childhood.

Continue reading...

Cressida Dick could not solve the Met’s problems. She could barely admit they existed

Posted on by

There was precedent for a commissioner determined to root out misbehaviour. Failure to follow it cost her the top job

When Robert Mark was appointed commissioner of the Metropolitan police in the 1970s he wryly suggested his ambition was to ensure the service arrested more criminals than it employed.

In the five years of his leadership (1972 to 1977) Mark’s success can be measured by the 50 criminal officers he put before a court, and the nearly 500 others who were swept out of the organisation as a result of his ruthless uncovering of the entrenched and institutionalised corruption which had protected them for too long.

Sandra Laville, a former Guardian crime correspondent, is now its environment correspondent

Continue reading...

Dame Cressida Dick forced out of scandal-hit Met police

Posted on by

Chief to leave role two years early after London’s mayor accused her of failing to deal with misogyny and racism in the force

Cressida Dick has been forced out as head of the Metropolitan police after London’s mayor accused her of failing to deal with a culture of misogyny and racism within Britain’s biggest force.

Dick’s dramatic resignation was announced just hours after she told a radio phone in that she would stay in post and had a plan to rid the Met of its toxic culture. But when City Hall let her aides know the plan was inadequate, the commissioner decided to boycott a showdown meeting set for 4.30pm and quit instead.

Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan warns Cressida Dick has days or weeks to act on Met failings

Posted on by

Mayor of London ‘disgusted’ by recent scandals and suggests he is prepared to try to oust commissioner

The mayor of London has signalled he is prepared to try and oust the Metropolitan police commissioner in days or weeks over a series of scandals.

Sadiq Khan said he was “disgusted and angry” by recent failings and that he thought Cressida Dick lacked a plan to boost confidence in the police force which had been “knocked and shattered”.

Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan declares ‘major incident’ over Covid surge in London – video

Posted on by

The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has declared a ‘major incident’ to help the capital’s hospitals cope with a surge in Covid-19 cases caused by the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

Khan said the step would allow for closer coordination between different public agencies, after the UK reported the largest 24-hour rise in new cases since the pandemic began

Continue reading...

Start of final Crossrail trials in London raises hope of early 2022 opening

Posted on by

Volunteer passengers will be aboard central TfL section of Elizabeth line as part of final testing phase

Hopes that Crossrail will open in central London in early 2022 – this time on schedule – have been boosted as the troubled £19bn scheme moved into its final phase of testing at the weekend.

The start of months of trial operations, which will involve thousands of volunteer passengers to test how the system will function, including in emergencies, was described as a “significant milestone” by Transport for London and the mayor.

Continue reading...

London drivers ditching diesel cars six times faster than rest of UK

Posted on by

Abandoning of polluting vehicles has accelerated since expansion of ultra-low emission zone announced

Drivers in London have abandoned diesel cars six times faster than those in the rest of the UK since Sadiq Khan announced plans for a massive expansion of the London’s clean air zone.

Research released days before London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) is rolled out across the capital shows there are about 128,000 fewer diesel cars on the city’s roads than in 2017, when the mayor announced plans to create one of the biggest clean air zones in Europe.

Continue reading...

London stadiums host ‘super Saturday’ of mass rapid Covid vaccinations

Posted on by

Tens of thousands turn up to grounds of West Ham, Spurs and others, as young people are urged to get jabs

Londoners received tens of thousands of Covid jabs in just a few hours on Saturday as football grounds in the capital were transformed into mass vaccination centres.

Huge jab clinics have been set up at the London Stadium, Stamford Bridge, the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, the Valley, home of Charlton Athletic, and Selhurst Park.

Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan pledges to explore new London Olympic bid if re-elected

Posted on by

Mayor will say city could look at bidding for 2036 or 2040 Games as post-Covid morale boost for nation

Sadiq Khan is pledging to look at bringing the Olympics back to London within 20 years if he is re-elected as mayor on Thursday.

In a speech at an amateur boxing club in Earlsfield, south-west London, on Tuesday, Khan will set out the prospect of another London Olympics as a post-Covid morale boost that he argues would extend beyond the capital.

Continue reading...

Cressida Dick refuses to quit over vigil policing and dismisses ‘armchair critics’

Posted on by

Metropolitan police chief stands firm after criticism from London mayor and home secretary

Britain’s most senior police chief defied pressure to resign as she dismissed “armchair” critics amid widespread outrage over officers manhandling women who were mourning the killing of Sarah Everard.

Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, was publicly rebuked by the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, for providing an unsatisfactory explanation of why police broke up a vigil for Everard in London’s Clapham Common on Saturday, near where she was allegedly abducted before being murdered.

Continue reading...