Sir James Cleverly, the frontrunner to be picked as the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, has warned that Londoners do not feel safe walking down the street and are fleeing the capital due to rising prices.
In an interview with Metro, the former Home Secretary said falling crime statistics in London have not stopped women and girls feeling they will become the next victim. He has vowed to crack down on petty crime like phone theft and shoplifting if he replaces Sadiq Khan in 2028.
Cleverly’s vision for London
Cleverly said he wanted London to become more of a 24-hour city with better overnight transport and cheaper nights out. He announced his bid to be Tory candidate for Mayor of London at the end of August, after quitting the Shadow Cabinet.
The Braintree MP, who grew up in Lewisham, south east London, has already won the backing of more than half of Conservative councillors in the capital and four out of the eight local Tory MPs. He said he was running to become the first Conservative Mayor in over a decade because he felt ‘Sadiq Khan has let it come off the boil’.
‘London is a fantastic, amazing city. I want to fire on all cylinders because I want it to be the best city in the world status that it deserves. Sadiq Khan has not gone at it with the dynamism the city and the role deserves.’
Crime and safety concerns
Asked if Londoners feel safe walking down the street, Cleverly replied: ‘I have far too many conversations with people who don’t feel safe. That is particularly true of women. I’ve really focused on making sure that women and girls feel safe and that is a key metric of success.’
New figures from City Hall in July showed a 15% drop in neighbourhood crime in the capital, and last year the murder rate per capita fell to the lowest since records began. However, Cleverly said that ‘statistics don’t overcome that fear of crime’.
He added: ‘There is no point the mayor putting a whole load of statistics telling people they are wrong. What we’ve got to do is demonstrate that the Metropolitan Police and others are doing their job, and the Mayor backs them doing that job.’
Housing and affordability
Cleverly does not have any new concrete policies yet. Instead, he wants to do a ‘complete review’ of all the costs and expenditure of City Hall to see what money can be redirected to ‘unlock’ London. One area he wants to boost is late-night transport, linked to ambition to bolster the capital’s nightlife.
Cleverly warned that London life as a whole is becoming ‘increasingly unaffordable’ and cited rising living and housing costs as one of the leading reasons people are fleeing the capital. Figures from the Office for National Statistics earlier this summer showed that London was the only region in England to see its population fall.
‘This is not a good sign at all. London should be one of the most desirable locations in the world. We should be asking why are we losing people,’ he said. ‘Young people are being priced out of the housing market. House building has completely collapsed in London.’
‘The proportion of people’s salary that goes on housing costs in London is too high. If Londoners don’t have as much disposable income they don’t have the kind of money to go out. We need a mayor with a powerful voice that can really take on the government, who see London as little more than a cash cow.’
Another potential target of Cleverly’s City Hall shake-up could be the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) fee, which has been unpopular among Conservative voters in outer London. He said: ‘I am passionate about London being clean and green and happy and healthy as anybody else. But at a time when people are genuinely struggling to make ends meet, you have to look at anything might impose additional cost upon them.’
Political context
If Cleverly wins the London Mayoralty in 2028, it would be the first Conservative victory in 16 years, when Boris Johnson won a second term. The city has firmly been in Sadiq Khan’s grasp since then, with Tory challengers failing to knock him out of City Hall.
Despite this, Cleverly disputes the notion that ‘London is a left-wing city’ and says he can win over a ‘wide group’ of voters. He explained: ‘London is a broad-minded, open-minded city. It’s also a business city. It’s full of people with a side hustle. It has that ambition and energy that transcends the very simply party political bracket.’
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: ‘Sadiq has made major investments in the Metropolitan Police and positive opportunities for young people as part of his approach of being tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. The evidence shows this approach is working.’
The statement continued: ‘He has built record numbers of council homes, taken world-leading action to clean up our air and confront the climate emergency, and driven major improvements to public transport in the capital, such as delivering the Elizabeth Line, the Superloop and the Night Tube, as well as standing up to NIMBYs to defend London’s nightlife. Working with the new Government, Sadiq has secured a record £6 billion for new council and affordable homes in the capital, along with more control over skills and education, which will help to set young Londoners up for the jobs of the future.’
