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One of the highest-profile and perhaps most intense races in next week’s local elections will take place in London between incumbent Labor mayor Sadiq Khan and controversial Conservative challenger Susan Hall.
The Conservative Party candidate is set to lose next week despite a narrow lead in the polls and a blame game beginning within the party after Mr Khan was forced to apologize for comments about the chief rabbi.
Mr Hall was seen as a gaffe-prone candidate at the beginning of the contest, suggesting the community feared Mr Khan, with LBC presenter Nick Ferrari criticizing Mr Hall’s claims that he had “used a weapon”. This prompted criticism from the British Jewish Parliamentary Committee. While attacking the mayor’s criminal history, he was pickpocketed on the subway.
The Conservative candidate also liked tweets promoting Enoch Powell’s views, promoted conspiracy theories that the 2020 US election was stolen from Donald Trump, and accused Islamophobia. He has been accused by the Labor Party of promoting far-right and extremist content, including saying that tweets like this will only “hurt people”. words”.
Hall, a former beauty salon owner who once worked as an auto mechanic in her father’s garage, also launched a “submarine” campaign to limit her public appearances after a gaffe in a previous broadcast interview. He has been criticized by the Labor Party for doing so.
But others who have been watching the campaign closely say she has taken the time to learn from her early mistakes and is laser focused on attacking Mr Khan’s ultra-low emission zones (Urez) and his record. He has sent a sharper message and has come back as a stronger candidate. I committed a crime while improving my performance in interviews.
This appears to be borne out by Mr. Khan’s narrowing lead in the polls. evening standard Thursday suggested his lead had dropped to 13 points.
But despite this, there was great distrust over Mr Hall’s prospects amid a bleak domestic outlook for the Conservatives and the fact that London is considered a Labor city, with Rishi Sunak in the final days of the campaign. appears to have no plans to campaign on her behalf. .
Conservative Party insiders have pointed out that the Prime Minister would have been better off spending his time raising money for the party’s candidates in general, rather than playing a personal role in the mayoral election, and that this is because the Prime Minister is realistically It is a clear sign that he does not believe that he is unlikely to win.
Other sources have suggested that Mr Hall has received no support from Conservative Party Central Election Headquarters (CCHQ), with one source saying Mr Hall has received no support from Conservative Party Central Election Headquarters (CCHQ). “I feel abandoned,” she said, suggesting that she “doesn’t know how to run a campaign.”
Regarding her series of controversies, a source added, “She’s like a mother you don’t want to introduce to your friends.”
Meanwhile, a Conservative strategist said party insiders in London said: “She’s angry and she can’t win. She should have found a better candidate. But no one agrees on who is who.” He said he thought so.
CCHQ denies this claim, pointing out that Mr Hall’s campaign office is located at party headquarters.
Some criticize the candidate, who suggests she never stood a chance against Mr Khan, as she is a traditional conservative who only served as a member of the London Parliament and whose real name is unknown. There is.
Opinion polls that had been circulated within the party during the candidate selection process were now leaked internally. IOne of the people stressed that this shows Hall made the wrong choice.
The Focaldata poll focused on the future of Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, a moderate with a somewhat lower profile.
This result shows that voters, by a 60-40 margin, said it was time to replace Mr. Khan, and that if Mr. Tugendhat was included as a candidate, he would poll 10 points better than the average Conservative Party. He has indicated that he believes the election campaign will become “significantly more intense.”
As a speaker of Arabic and other Middle Eastern languages, his ability to reach out to minority communities in London was also highlighted.
One source said this showed the Conservatives had failed in their candidate selection process, saying: “After the Liz Truss scandal, and after the Susan Hall scandal, there has been no independent inquiry into the Conservative selection process.” It should have been done.
“We’re not following the evidence.”
Meanwhile, Mr Hall’s manifesto focuses on abolishing Ures and cracking down on crime, and is too passive, with an emphasis on strengthening environmental measures such as boosting the supply of housing and adding more charging points for electric buses and cars. Some people suggest that he has fought a strong election campaign.
A senior Tory MP said: ‘I don’t know what the message is other than that Sadiq is useless. Running London is about more than just complaining.
“The manifesto was last-minute and very thin; it didn’t say anything about business or skills, and it didn’t have any thought about community.
“She’s grabbing the comfort blanket of her core voters.”
Despite the hostility towards Mr Hall, the 2021 London mayoral election is closer than expected, with voters having the final say.
I Over the course of several weeks during the campaign, I made multiple requests for an interview with Hall. An interview with Sadiq Khan was published last week.
A spokesperson for Hall’s campaign said: “Susan and her campaign are committed to helping Londoners scrap Sadiq Khan’s Ures expansion plan, cancel the pay-per-mile plan and make the city safer by returning to borough headquarters. “We are only focused on May 2nd, which is the last chance to do so.” About the police. ”