Home Secretary lashes out at Sadiq Khan but fails to praise Susan Hall

The Home Secretary lashed out at Sadiq Khan on Thursday, saying the Mayor of London “talks more about Gaza than Black kids getting murdered in south east London”.

James Cleverly said Mr Khan’s record on knife crime in the capital was “unacceptable”.

But with just a week to go until the mayoral election, he failed to praise Conservative candidate Susan Hall.

“Knife crime [is] coming down across the whole of the UK, except for London,” Mr Cleverly told the Westminster Press Gallery lunch.

“Police numbers [is] going up across the whole of the UK except for, once again, London. The bottom line is the guy has been asleep at the wheel.

“Doing the occasionally punchy social media clip slating Donald Trump when he was president... talking more about Gaza than Black kids getting murdered in south east London. Unacceptable.”

While Mr Cleverly was quick to lavish praise on West Midlands Tory mayor Andy Street and Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen, he failed to complement Ms Hall who is standing for the party in London.

Ms Hall’s selection was controversial and widely criticised after the former Harrow council leader made a number of embarrassing gaffs during media appearances.

She also liked a string of social media posts that caused controversy online, including one by far-right commentator Katie Hopkins which described Muslim Mr Khan as the “nipple height mayor of Londonistan”.

Mr Cleverly said his party’s northern mayors had an “excellent track record” and “the positivity towards them comes out again and again and again”.

But he added: “With Susan Hall, I get it I get it. So people criticising Susan for not putting herself up for scrutiny. Yet radio silence for Sadiq Khan.”

It comes as London’s mayoral race was dramatically stirred up by a new poll showing the smallest lead for Mr Khan ahead of Ms Hall since their campaigns got under way.

The Savanta survey for the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London put the Labour mayor on 46 per cent, with his Tory challenger on 33 per cent, a lead of 13 points.

The findings suggest the final result may be far closer than earlier polls which put Mr Khan some 24 to 25 points ahead, and even sparked talk that Ms Hall may, possibly be able to pull off a surprise victory.

It is the second one to show a significantly smaller lead for the Labour candidate and pointed to some “key battlegrounds” possibly emerging in South and West London ahead of the vote on May 2.