Sadiq Khan has said he will visit Israel if re-elected as the Mayor of London.
Speaking to the Jewish News during a campaign visit to Golders Green, Khan was asked if could definitely pledge to visit Israel if elected for a second term on May 6. He said: “I can, absolutely.”
He added: ”If I am re-elected I intend to go to Israel. There is a lot of work we are already doing in fintech, with innovation. Whenever I speak with the Mayor of Tel Aviv I am very excited about the work that is taking place there. There is an obvious partnership, I want to see us building on that. In term two, I will bang the drum for London in Israel.”
He also revealed he has regularly turned to advice from Israel over the past few months on how to encourage Londoners to overcome concerns about having the COVID-19 vaccine.
“What Israel did with what is called vaccine hesitancy – they were light years ahead,” he told Jewish News. “We were speaking to them regularly on how you bust the myths. What Israel recognised was that you have got to educate people. They explained very well and normalised and educated and explained if you want to get back to reality vaccines are the way out.”
The 2021 London mayoral election will be held on May 6 after a year’s delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2016 Khan, of the Labour Party, was elected with 44.2% of the first-round votes and 56.8% of the second-round votes.
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If re-elected he has pledged to:
- Make commuting more affordable
- Clean up London’s toxic air
- Build new council and social rent homes
- Tackle crime
- Champion London’s openness, diversity and tolerance
His main rival will be the Conservative party candidate Shaun Bailey who has pledged to:
- Making London’s streets safer by hiring 8,000 more police and reopening 38 police stations
- Help young people get out of crime with 32 new youth centres and 4,000 new youth workers
- Get young Londoners on the housing ladder by building 100,000 homes and selling them for £100,000 each
- Clean up London’s air
