After four years of excuses and blame, and another year of failure on the way, Londoners will be asking themselves: what is the point of Sadiq Khan? #Thread 1/11 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/22/no-power-no-money-no-ability-change-anything-point-sadiq-khan/">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/...

Khan has faced a crisis in each of his three areas of responsibility: a violent crime emergency, the ongoing housing shortage, and now the collapse of TfL& #39;s finances.

And in each crisis, he has offered an appalling response which has deepened the challenges facing London. 2/11

Until coronavirus, which has temporarily reduced some crimes in London, Khan bungled City Hall& #39;s efforts to keep London safe for four years.

As crime rose, he cut stop and search. As police officer numbers dwindled, he wasted millions of pounds on fripperies. 3/11

On Khan& #39;s watch, murder rose to an 11-year high, and knife crime reached a record high.

Instead of keeping Londoners safe, the Mayor chose to:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💷" title="Banknote with pound sign" aria-label="Emoji: Banknote with pound sign">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔥" title="Fire" aria-label="Emoji: Fire"> Increase City Hall& #39;s staffing costs by 82%
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💷" title="Banknote with pound sign" aria-label="Emoji: Banknote with pound sign">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔥" title="Fire" aria-label="Emoji: Fire"> Waste a record £44m on TfL perks
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💷" title="Banknote with pound sign" aria-label="Emoji: Banknote with pound sign">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔥" title="Fire" aria-label="Emoji: Fire"> Nearly double his culture budget

4/11

To solve London& #39;s housing shortage, the Mayor was given an unprecedented £4.82bn government grant to start building 116,000 affordable homes by April 2022.

After four years, Khan hasn& #39;t even started half of these homes, and it& #39;s unlikely he will meet the target. 5/11

He failed to build 10,000 homes on Transport for London land by 2020.

He abandoned his pledge to ensure housing associations build 80,000 homes a year.

And he scrapped City Hall& #39;s target for family-sized homes despite 360,000 children living in overcrowded conditions. 6/11

And that brings us to Khan& #39;s latest crisis which he helped author - the collapse of TfL& #39;s finances and City Hall& #39;s appalling handling of the coronavirus crisis.

In the past four years, the Mayor has pursued transport policies which he knew TfL could not afford. 7/11

His partial fares freeze, which benefited tourists while Londoners saw the cost of their travelcards rise, cost our city at least £640m.

The delay to Crossrail, which was on time and budget when Khan inherited it, has cost an extra £3.65bn and £1.35bn in lost revenue. 8/11

Even if Transport for London were in tip-top condition, it would have required a bailout to survive the coronavirus outbreak.

However, it went into this unprecedented crisis in a mess and has come out worse as a result. 9/11

Now Sadiq Khan is attempting to use the bailout to hide the cost of his appalling decisions - including blaming the deal for his partial fares freeze ending (which he had already announced) and his decision to hike up and extend the Congestion Charge. 10/11

Londoners are right to ask themselves what the point of Sadiq Khan is - he only offers our city blame and excuses.

He has squandered a golden opportunity to deliver for the capital which any other London politician would have bitten your arm off to have. 11/11