Polanski accuses Khan of siding with Starmer instead of Londoners

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has accused the Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan of failing to use his platform to stand up for Londoners out of fear of falling out of favour with the Labour government.

Polanski, who was elected as leader in September, also sits in City Hall as one of three Green Party members on the London Assembly. In an exclusive interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), he accused Khan of siding with his party colleagues in Westminster rather than using his “huge platform” to convey the wants and needs of the Londoners he serves.

While the Mayor has often challenged decisions made by the government, as well as calling for a ceasefire in Gaza or a lifting of the two-child benefit cap months before ministers took action themselves, Polanski says Khan needed to be bolder.

“The Mayor of London is not a nothing platform, it’s a pretty huge platform,” Polanski said.

“To be fair to the Mayor, I think there’s things he gets right and it’s always important to point that out, but I think there are far too many areas where he’s too quick to say ‘this isn’t my responsibility, this is up to national government’.

“He’s even said to me a few times that [he’s] not the leader of a political party.

“Now I take that responsibility seriously, but he should take his responsibility seriously too. And I think there’s plenty of things as Mayor of London he could be using his platform for, but he doesn’t do far too often because I think he’s trying to stay on the side of Keir Starmer as opposed to be on the sides of Londoners.”

Prior to being elected for the third time last May, Sir Sadiq claimed that the subsequent election of a Labour government would bring about “real transformation in London”.

“There’s a possibility of a Labour Mayor and a Labour government working together, rather than rowing against the tide of a Tory government,” he said at the time. “We’d have the winds of a Labour government at our back.”

However, the provisional local government finance settlement figures will see most inner London boroughs lose funding over the next three years.

And while the DLR extension was approved by the Chancellor in last month’s budget, it is thought that the Treasury will make Transport for London (TfL) pay for most of it, while the West London Orbital and Bakerloo Line extension will have to wait entirely.

In addition, it has been alleged that Rachel Reeves demanded Khan “get out” of her office after he tried to lobby for more money for the capital. The Mayor’s prediction has not come to fruition “in most people’s experiences”, Polanski said.

“That’s not what has happened. It’s impossible to look at London issues at the moment without connecting it to some of the failures of the national government. There’s only certain things he can do within the budget he’s got, but I’m making sure that I’m pushing him with the powers that he does have.”

The Assembly Member’s clashes with the Mayor of London have stepped up in intensity in recent months, most notably during a Mayor’s Question Time session in September, just days after he was elected as leader.

The firebrand Green used his allotted time to quiz the Mayor over the UK’s relationship with Israel, which was still carrying out a full-scale invasion of Gaza at the time.

Khan accused Polanski, who has more than 146,000 followers on X, of using the line of questioning for a “clip on social media”.

“The member is using Mayor’s Question Time to raise points he wants to raise as leader of the Green Party,” he said. “This is an example of the Greens using the fora of Mayor’s Question Time to raise important issues in a trivial way — he’s been after a sound bite for the last six minutes, that is sixth-form politics.”

Polanski told the LDRS: “To see the Mayor refuse for six minutes to acknowledge it was a genocide was pretty appalling.

“Then it wasn’t even a week later, three days later, we’re at People’s Question Time. Before I even got a chance to speak on the microphone, the Mayor said, what is happening in Gaza is a genocide.

“Now, I don’t want to be churlish. I want to acknowledge when anyone moves to the right position, but it’s pretty galling that he was accusing me of playing politics when his position changed three days [later].

“What I’d say to the Mayor is if he doesn’t want millions of people to see what he says, then don’t say it — and if you want people to see what you’re saying, then record it and let them see it. I’m not editing the clip. I think if a clip was being edited and something was being presented that was different to his argument, he would have a legitimate criticism here.

“That’s just transparency and accountability. And I’m not surprised that the Mayor doesn’t like it when on far too many of his positions he’s defending the Labour government rather than doing what Londoners need.

“Rather than lashing out, change your policies and get better.”

In response to the interview, a spokesperson for Khan told the LDRS: “The Mayor has always been a champion for London on the national stage, whichever party has been in government. This includes Sadiq fighting against Heathrow expansion, opposing unfair changes to welfare, and championing bold policies to tackle air pollution.

“The Mayor is delighted that after introducing free schools meals in London, they are now being rolled out further across the country. The Mayor continues to champion London around the world as a place that is open to trade and talent, and where everyone is welcome whatever their background.”

A YouGov poll from October showed that the Greens are viewed more favourably than any other party in London and among younger voters, with 27 per cent of respondents in the capital indicating them as their first preference of the five major parties.

Nationally, the Green Party are battling it out for second place behind Reform UK with the Labour and Conservative Party, according to recent surveys.

Polanski said the surge in interest was down to social media and the fact that voters are “seeing us for the first time and that we’re communicating effectively”.

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