Sadiq khan

It takes an achingly long time for the British to see a lickspittle of mass murderers for what he is. For years, you jump up and down shouting 'look at what he’s done!' All but a handful ignore you. But he’s a character, the rest cry. He’s not like those poll-driven, focus-group–tested on-message politicians, who speak in soundbites. He is passionate about his beliefs. So he is, you reply, and that’s the problem. Since the marches against the Iraq war of 2003, I have written against George Galloway.

Since Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader, the party has been dogged by rumours of anti-semitism in certain factions of the party. Matters were only worsened last week with the re-admittance and then re-expulsion of Vicki Kirby, a former Labour parliamentary candidate who has suggested that Isis ought to attack Israel. Now there are concerns that the negative publicity could damage Sadiq Khan's London mayoral bid. Last week, Jonathan Arkush -- the President of the Board of Deputies -- claimed that the Labour candidate could struggle to win votes from London's 180,000 Jews. While Khan has made clear that Labour needs to ditch its 'anti-Jewish' image, he may wish to take a closer look at who he takes an interest in on social media.

As Zac Goldsmith fights to be the next Mayor of London against Labour's Sadiq Khan, he is striving to appeal to all Londoners. Alas, somewhere in the process of doing this, he appears to have got a bit confused. In an interview with Pink News -- the news website aimed at the LGBT community, Goldsmith said that he wanted to be a mayor for everyone, employing the term 'pansexual' to try and make his point: Pink News: Would you like to be the mayor for everyone? ZG: I would use the term pansexual here, if my understanding is correct. https://vine.co/v/iXa9lEB5Jrx While Mr S suspects that Goldsmith means that he wants to appeal to all Londoners, given that the term pansexual means not being limited by gender in sexual choice, he may wish to rephrase in future...

Sadiq Khan, I’m sure you and your supporters think you’re being super right-on when you say that it would send a ‘phenomenal message’ to the world if Londoners were to elect their first-ever Muslim mayor in May. But actually you’re playing an incredibly dangerous game. You’re Islamifying what ought to be a straight political contest. You’re turning the vote over who should run London into a test of Londoners’ tolerance of Islam. You’re asking voters to prove they aren’t prejudiced, when all they should be doing is expressing a political preference. Stop it. The Khan camp has been playing the Muslim card from the get-go. Last year, Khan talked up the ‘phenomenal’ symbolism of London having a Muslim mayor.

John Bercow hit out at Greg Hands for his 'long-winded, boring and unnecessary' answer in the Commons: Ken Livingstone said that his history of rebellions, as well as those rebellions orchestrated by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, proved they were right: The former London mayor also said Labour was 'completely out of kilter with the membership' and that it was time for Labour MPs to come to terms with Corbyn: George Osborne had a dig at Labour's appointment of Yanis Varoufakis.

Last night Sadiq Khan appeared on Newsnight to discuss his bid to be the next Mayor of London. Evan Davis grilled the Labour mayoral candidate on his extended family's supposed links to extremists as well as his approach to business which appears to be at loggerheads with Jeremy Corbyn's: ED: Corbyn has said 'now is the time more than ever to call for public ownership and control of the banking system'. This is only 2012, this isn't ancient history he was saying it. I mean you're at a completely different end of the party SK: Let me tell you something, Jeremy Corbyn's name is not on the ballot paper on May 5th, nor is David Cameron's, nor is Boris Johnson's.

If a dirty mind is a perpetual feast, then a filthy mind is an open sewer. You see where the manure is coming from. More to the point, you know where it is going. When Galloway faced a challenge for the Bradford West seat from the Labour candidate, Naz Shah, he thought the best way to respond was to denounce a woman's tales of abuse. He reduced Shah’s forced marriage at the age 15, to a ‘slander of her own family, community and city’ and an appeal to ‘racist stereotypes'. When he declared Bradford an ‘Israel free-zone,’ Muslim and white anti-Semites paid attention.

Since Sadiq Khan was elected as Labour's mayoral candidate, he has made an effort to distance himself from Jeremy Corbyn. Although Khan was one of the Labour MPs to help Corbyn get onto the ballot, after Khan won the nomination he turned on the Labour leader -- suggesting that Corbyn's refusal to sing the National Anthem showed he could be unfit to be Prime Minister. Now it seems that Khan just can't help himself even when he is trying to attack the Tories. His team have released an attack ad on Zac Goldsmith -- the Tory candidate for mayor -- in the form of a mocked-up CV. The 'CV' lists the reasons Goldsmith is not suitable to be the mayor of London, citing the fact his family connections led to his first 'proper job' at The Ecologist magazine.

Jeremy Corbyn is currently conducting his reshuffle, with a group of journalists huddled at a discreet distance from the Labour leader’s office. So far, not much has happened, other than Corbyn asking the journalists not to stand outside his office, and Barry Gardiner emerging with a smile on his face. But still the briefings around the reshuffle and the anticipation of it have dominated the news agenda. This must be intensely frustrating for Sadiq Khan, who had planned to spend today getting lots of attention for his campaign on train fares. Labour members and staffers were up long before dawn handing out leaflets publicising the four-year fare freeze promised by the party’s mayoral candidate.

Now Jeremy Corbyn has passed his first electoral test in Oldham West, the Conservatives are focusing on the next one: the 2016 London Mayor election. CCHQ has launched SadiqWatch today, a new website which shows off the Tories' lines of attack against Sadiq Khan for the first time. Just like the Not Ken Again site from the 2012 Mayoral race, the videos and graphics don’t mention they’re from the Tories, but the site's footer does say (in small print) they are produced at CCHQ. The most striking attack line is in the standfirst of SadiqWatch: ‘Holding Corbyn’s candidate to account’. As one of the 35 Labour MPs who nominated Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader, the Tories are planning to say that Corbyn and Khan are inextricably linked.

Political party conferences have, in recent years, felt like an empty ritual. They used to be convened in seaside towns, so grassroots activists could find affordable accommodation. Now they are usually held in cities, so lobbyists can find better restaurants. Activists have been supplanted by members of the political class who are charged £500 a ticket. In the fringe debates, speakers face a volley of questions from people paid to ask them — on pensions, subsidies for green energy and the like. Politicians spend all day talking to journalists, and real politics vanishes. This year, however, politics has returned.

With Zac Goldsmith today announced as the Conservative candidate for the 2015 London mayoral race, the Tory MP will now face Sadiq Khan in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as mayor. However, one man who feels he should not be forgotten as a contender is George Galloway. Galloway -- who is running as an independent candidate for mayor -- thinks that there is a gap in the market for him in the race, as Labour's Sadiq Khan is just not up to it. Speaking on the Daily Politics, Galloway said that while he was disappointed that Tessa Jowell is not Labour's candidate – given that she differs from him more politically than Khan – Khan is still no real threat to his own bid. Why?