Sadiq khan

This year's Labour party conference line-up has been as much about who's not speaking than who is. After Sadiq Khan was denied a speaking slot, a tussle broke out between the unions, Labour HQ and the Leader's Office over whether the London mayor should be allowed to speak. As things stand, he is now expected to be granted a platform in the hall this afternoon. However, given that just yesterday one Labour member took to the stage to call for Khan to be blocked from speaking as they see him on TV 'all the time', nothing is guaranteed.

When Sadiq Khan took to the stage at Labour’s conference last year, his none-too-subtle message to Jeremy Corbyn was a lecture on the importance of winning power. Now, a year on, some Corbynistas are determined not to give the London Mayor the same opportunity to speak up - as we have already seen in the conference. Khan was reportedly denied a slot on the main stage this time around. That decision was then reversed in the wake of a backlash by one of the big unions, as Katy Balls reports. But the row over whether Khan should be allowed to speak isn't over yet. As proceedings kicked off this morning, one Labour member took to the stage to call for Khan to be blocked from speaking (see the video above).

Transport for London has decided it knows what will keep me safe better than I do. The transport regulator has today refused to reissue Uber’s private hire licence, on the basis of 'public safety and security implications'. Let me tell you about security implications as a woman in London. If I come out of a club or bar in the middle of the night, I do not want to be hanging around alone on the pavement for half an hour while my minicab fails to materialise, engaged in a frustrating negotiation with the operator about where exactly my driver is. I don’t want to trawl the streets in the hope of finding a black cab to hail down, only to be told my zone 3 address is too out of the way for them.

I can’t work up much indignation at the collapse of London’s Garden Bridge project, which has been strangled by the refusal of mayor Sadiq Khan to guarantee its continuing operational and maintenance costs — assuming its trustees, led by former banker and minister Lord Davies of Abersoch, would have succeeded in raising the £150 million of private capital required to build the bridge and plant its 270 trees in the first place. Promoted by Joanna Lumley and Sadiq’s predecessor Boris Johnson, this was a beautiful but whimsical idea, placed in an overcrowded stretch of the Thames and based on a ramshackle business plan.

How thin-skinned and pompous the British media class is. On the airwaves, Twitter, and elsewhere, the reaction to Donald Trump's tweet about London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been apoplexy bordering on hysteria. Trump has deeply insulted our nation, it is said, and harmed the Special Relationship. Susan Minton Beddoes, the editor of the Economist, told American TV Trump's tweet was 'really damaging'. Countless others are now calling on Theresa May to give Trump a piece of their minds. I can't help thinking May's time could be better spent -- addressing the terror problem, say -- than getting into a war of words with the President of the United States. Besides, what do we want May to do? Hop on Twitter and 'own' him with some keep-calm-carry-on zinger about how allies ought to behave?

It is not often, especially in the midst of what has been a grimly dreadful election campaign for her, that one feels some measure of pity for Theresa May. But there she was today, gamely putting on her bravest, gamest, face when she was asked for her reaction to Donald Trump’s latest witless provocations.  The American president, you can hardly failed to have noticed, has not covered himself in glory since the weekend’s terrorist attack in London. When the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, suggested that Londoners should not be alarmed by the deployment of additional armed officers on the streets of London, Trump blustered “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!

George Osborne has been a good friend to London. He sees the point of infrastructure and I hope he’ll fight hard for Crossrail 2, which has been shunted into the sidings by this government. London business rates are a huge issue, close to Osborne’s heart. He’s a supporter of the arts, with a streak of romanticism missing in David Cameron and Theresa May. It’s good news for Sir Simon Rattle’s concert hall, and Thomas Heatherwick’s Garden Bridge. The mayor Sadiq Khan, who is more than a match for Osborne as a political strategist, will understand what they can jointly achieve as champions of an open, liberal city. The Prime Minister is anxious to move attention away from London, so as to re-balance the rest of the country.

So I am feeling a bit better about my lack of radio experience. These are exciting times for free movement of labour and with Westminster under the control of Tory and Labour cabals, lovely jobs outside Parliament are tempting. George Osborne is no more qualified to edit the London Evening Standard than Tristram Hunt to run the V&A, but now art and antiquities scholars have dried their tears, that is turning out splendidly. The late Nick Tomalin pointed out that success in journalism requires only ‘ratlike cunning, a plausible manner, and a little literary ability’. The trade is temperament as much as technical skill and Osborne has a journalistic love of mischief-making. When I introduced him to the newsroom last Friday, I thanked him for livening up our day.

As part of Sadiq Khan's ongoing efforts to prove London is 'united and open for business, and to the world' in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, the Mayor of London has released a series of videos of late to try to get the message across. In one such film, David Walliams narrates as a host of animals -- from penguins at London Zoo to Horse Guards Parade horses -- appear on screen, with the simple message: 'London is open a home for all creatures great and small'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFtgzIsRP6c However, Mr S understands that not every London animal resident is on board. Word reaches Steerpike that behind the scenes a tug of war has been going on between No.10 and the Mayor of London over Larry, the Downing Street cat.

Richmond Park has been in the news a bit lately. It is portrayed as a bastion of wealth and privilege, whose residents stand accused of trying to lord it over ordinary voters. But never mind blocking Brexit, do the people who live there deserve the right to an uninterrupted view of St Paul's? Outrage has greeted the construction of a 42-storey tower in Stratford, East London, which is accused of compromising the view of Wren’s great cathedral from a mound in Richmond Park. Planning permission for Manhattan Loft Gardens, which will incorporate 250 flats as well as a 145-bed hotel, was granted back in 2011. Yet no-one seemed to notice at the time that the block would stand directly behind St Paul’s when viewed from Richmond Park. The cathedral says it was not consulted.

On this week's podcast we discuss the royal flush that Theresa May has been dealt, debate Sadiq Khan’s progress, half a year into his tenure as London Mayor, and pose the seasonal question of whether advent is better than Christmas. First, James Forsyth's cover story this week charts the remarkable fortune of Theresa May, as the weaknesses of Labour and the Eurozone (not to mention her Trump card) give her a strong hand heading into the Brexit negotiations. Speaking to the podcast, James says that: "I think you could say that, look, the EU27 are being remarkably united at the moment. They clearly do not want to suggest that you can leave the EU and have all the benefits of membership without any of the so-called costs.