Sadiq Khan has finally announced his full Mayoral manifesto, after a week-long barrage of anticipatory press releases.
Two weeks before the 2 May election, the incumbent mayor described his vision of a "Fairer, safer, greener London," with a dizzying array of policies.
A large part of his stall concerns young Londoners. He promised to continue funding free lunchtime meals for state primary school children, and also announced 'baby banks', which would supply free food, nappies and other essentials to those who need them.
Khan also listed a dozen other policies that would benefit families, including funding for mental health support for young Londoners, meals for low-income families during the school holidays, and an ‘Erasmus style’ scheme to allow young people to study and undertake work experience overseas.
This is on top of pledges to build 40,000 council homes by 2030 as well as 6,000 new rent control homes, and a slew of other promises.
Indeed, it's almost too much to keep up with. For a week now, the Mayor has bombarded our inbox with press releases, trailing his manifesto. Here's what he's been pumping out:
Friday 12 April: Re-commits London to reaching Net Zero by 2030. Announces 10-point climate action plan, including solar panels for 50 schools.
Monday 15 April: Will eliminate rough sleeping by 2030, with £10 million of extra funding.
Tuesday 16 April: Will launch a new London Bus Company to bring bus services back into public ownership. Will keep lobbying for Bakerloo line extension, West London Orbital rail, DLR extension to Thamesmead and (the one everyone's forgotten about), Crossrail 2.
Wednesday 17 April: Announces 10-point plan to tackle violence against women and girls, with £163.8 million investment.
Thursday 18 April: Will roll out baby banks in every London borough, which would provide free essentials such as nappies, bedding and feeding equipment. A bit like food banks, but for babies. Launches full manifesto.
You'll note that many of these pledges come with 2030 deadlines. Conveniently, this is half way through the Mayoral term after the next one, by which time there's every chance Khan may have moved on to other things.
What of Susan Hall?
While Khan seems to be going for the scattergun, dazzle-with-a-thousand-promises approach, his Tory opponent Susan Hall has a more targeted strategy. She has not yet released her full manifesto, but we can get a strong flavour from her "five-point plan".
1. Get a grip on crime. Make our streets safe. (As pledged by every candidate, ever.)
2. Scrap the ULEZ expansion. (She's gone strong on this, even to the point of manipulating one of my photos without credit.)
3. End Sadiq Khan's war on the motorist. (As per point 2, but will also remove LTNs and scrap lots of 20mph limits.)
4. Stop Sadiq Khan's inappropriate tower blocks. Build family homes. (But also protect the Green Belt at all costs.)
5. Make London a cleaner and greener city. (More electric buses and charge points for cars, among other initiatives.)
Other candidates are standing in the 2 May election (see our guide here), of course, but the new first-past-the-post voting system means it's extremely unlikely that anyone other than the Labour and Tory candidates could win.
