Kier Starmer and Sadiq Khan launch London Labour’s local election in Barnet with UK Cypriot Barnet candidate Tony Vourou and Camdens Panny Antoniou
Keir Starmer and Sadiq Khan urge voters to ‘send a message’ to Tory ministers at local election launch as cost of living crisis bites. Also present at the launch were UK Cypriot candidates for Barnet Brunswick Park Tony Vourou and for Camden Highgate ward Panny Antoniou.
Also Bambos Charalambous MP and Peray Ahmet leader of Haringey council were there.
Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan and Camden borough council leader Georgia Gould jointly called on voters across the capital to use their voice at the local elections on 5 May.
Speaking in Barnet, the Labour politicians used the local election campaign launch to rally Londoners to send a message to the Tory government about the devastating impact of cuts to funding for local councils. They also encouraged voters to relay their anger at the contempt with which they’ve been treated by Boris Johnson over the growing cost of living crisis and the ‘partygate’ scandal.
Keir Starmer blamed a ‘detached’ ministerial team which had ‘run out of ideas’ laying the groundwork for a spiralling cost of living crisis, while the Mayor blasted the most ‘anti-London government in history’ for ‘abandoning’ the capital just when Londoners need more support.
For years, Labour councils across the city have worked closely with the Mayor to ensure that the capital is as affordable as possible for Londoners. In partnership, they have championed the expansion of the London Living Wage, backed calls for a sustainable funding deal for TfL and prioritised the building of record numbers of genuinely affordable homes.
Labour in London has presided over a resurgence in council house building, numbers not seen since the 1970s. In March 2022, London reached the target of starting more than 10,000 council homes, delivering a key Mayoral manifesto pledge.
In stark contrast, the Tories have prioritised the building of luxury flats and presided over the sharpest drop in living standards since records began.
Despite the Conservatives repeatedly asserting that London’s streets are paved with gold, Labour analysis has revealed that more than 15 per cent of households are already in fuel poverty (using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency definition). This figure jumps to more than 20 per cent in boroughs like Barking and Dagenham, Newham and Waltham Forest.
In response, the Tories have repeatedly voted against Labour’s fair and funded plan for a one-off windfall tax on the booming profits of oil and gas producers – which would cut up to £600 from household bills. In contrast, the Government has offered households a paltry £200 loan to offset costs which will ultimately be repayable over the course of five years.
The Tory government, in its ideological commitment to levelling down London, has no response to the housing or energy crises and has repeatedly refused to make good on the Mayor’s electoral mandate to introduce rent controls in the capital. The Conservatives have also declined the Mayor’s challenge to accelerate the path to net zero through investment in renewable energy and green jobs and infrastructure, leaving the nation’s energy security at the mercy of dubious oil-rich regimes around the world.
The Leader of the Labour party, Keir Starmer said: “Boris Johnson and his government are hopelessly detached from the concerns of ordinary Londoners.
“Whether it is their arrogance over the parties in Downing Street, their meagre response to a rising energy crisis or their indifference to the spiralling cost of living, the Conservatives have run out of ideas.
“The elections on 5 May are a chance to put Labour councillors who are on your side in power and send a message to the Tories about the lack of respect they’ve shown the public.”
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “When London succeeds, the whole country succeeds – yet this Tory government, the most anti-London government in recent history – is levelling down our city and abandoning Londoners just when they need more support.
“Against the backdrop of more than a decade of cuts to local services, Londoners are facing a triple whammy of energy price hikes, tax increases and rising inflation.
“This simply can’t go on. On 5 May, Londoners must show up in force to send a message to the Government and to vote Labour so that we can deliver the fairer, greener, more equal city we all want to see.”
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