James Cleverly: Sadiq Khan talks more about Gaza ‘than black kids getting murdered in London’

Polls predict Sadiq Khan will comfortably win a third term in office as London’s mayor – Imageplotter / Alamy Live News

Sadiq Khan has said more about Gaza than about “black kids getting murdered in south-east London”, the Home Secretary has said.

In a stinging attack on the Labour Mayor of London, James Cleverly accused Mr Khan of being “asleep at the wheel” and cited his record on knife crime and policing in the capital.

It comes just a week before the London mayoral election, with polls predicting Mr Khan will comfortably win a third term in office.

Speaking at a lunch for journalists in Westminster, the Home Secretary said: “The bottom line is the guy’s been asleep at the wheel and doing the occasionally punchy social media clip slating Donald Trump when he was president, just talking about anything and everything.

“I’ve heard him talk more about Gaza than black kids getting murdered in south-east London. Unacceptable, unacceptable.”

A spokesman for Mr Khan said that the remarks were “vile comments about the deaths of children that do not deserve the dignity of a response”.

London mayoral election

Mr Khan called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict last October, at the time putting himself at odds with Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader.

Asked about Susan Hall, the Tory candidate for London mayor, Mr Cleverly said: “Knife crime is coming down across the whole of the UK, except for London.

“Police numbers are going up across the whole of the UK, except for once again, London.”

The MP for Braintree, Essex, added: “Where is the coverage? This is our capital city. Ten million people being failed, unremarked upon largely by the media, and then people turn around and say ‘Oh, Susan hasn’t put herself up for scrutiny’. I don’t buy that.”

Mrs Hall is currently lagging far behind the Labour incumbent in the mayoral race, with voters heading to the polls next week.

But a recent poll by Savanta for the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University put Mr Khan at his smallest lead yet ahead of Mrs Hall at 13 points.

It comes as polling expert Lord Hayward predicted that the Tories would lose upwards of 400 council seats nationwide on May 2, a wipeout that would add to jitters among Tory MPs about Rishi Sunak’s future in No 10.

In predictions for Channel 4 News, Lord Hayward suggested that Labour would gain between 200 and 250 seats and around 100 for the Liberal Democrats.

Tories should not ‘feed the psychodrama’

Asked about Conservative colleagues considering sending in letters of no confidence if the party received a set of dire results next week, Mr Cleverly said: “If you’re going to jump out of an aeroplane, please make sure you’ve got a parachute before you leave the aeroplane and don’t say no, we’ll work that out on the way down.”

He added: “Those people who think that another leadership campaign, as truncated as it might be between now and the election, is anything other than a catastrophically bad idea – I don’t get it.”

The Home Secretary told journalists: “When people turn around and say, ‘Oh if we replace the Prime Minister, it would magically get better’.

“I’m just like no, no. It’s like Labour Party policy: Where’s the detail? Where’s the meat?”

Mr Cleverly added: “We should have the discipline to stay focused on what we have achieved in Government and what we’re planning to do next rather than feed the psychodrama, which is fascinating, but it’s not how you do good government.”

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