Zac Goldsmith has made a last-minute bid to voters to back his flagging London mayoral hopes by implying that Sadiq Khan would not be able to keep the city safe from terrorists.
In an article in the Daily Mail featuring a picture of a London bus which had been blown up in the 7/7 attacks, Goldsmith wrote that Khan’s Labour party leadership had “repeatedly legitimised those with extremist views.”
He said: “As a beacon of freedom, diversity and prosperity throughout the ages, London will always be in the cross-hairs of pan-European terror movements.
“The number one job of any mayor of London is to keep our city safe. Yet if Labour wins on Thursday, we will have handed control of the Met, and with it control over national counter-terrorism policy, to a party whose candidate and current leadership have, whether intentionally or not, repeatedly legitimised those with extremist views.
“Corbyn has described Hamas and Hezbollah as ‘friends’. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell is a self-proclaimed IRA sympathiser. And the last Labour mayor, Ken Livingstone, has in the past few days shocked even hardened critics of Labour with grotesque comments about Hitler.”
Goldsmith has run what some consider to be the most Islamophobic campaign ever seen in British politics.
If he becomes mayor he has pledged to build 50,000 homes by 2020, put 500 more police on the Tube, and freeze council tax for four years.
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But most indicators point in favour of Sadiq Khan being the city’s next mayor. He has a healthy 20-point lead in the polls.
