In February 2016, before you became Mayor of London, you stated: ‘I will be a Mayor for all Londoners.’ Do you think your aspiration has been borne out by events? https://labourlist.org/2016/02/sadiq-khan-i-will-be-a-mayor-for-all-londoners/

Thank you for your question, Assembly Member Whittle, and thank you for your work over the past five years. You have been a passionate advocate for the issues you feel strongly about. Although we do not see eye to eye on matters of policy, I appreciate the manner in which you have approached your work. I was elected to be Mayor for all Londoners and I have kept this promise in my mind every day of the last five years I have had the privilege of being Mayor. This means working for people in inner London and outer London, women and men, the young and the old, people from all backgrounds and with different beliefs, Londoners who voted for me and those that did not.

During the pandemic, we have seen the very best of our communities. But it has also revealed some stark health inequalities and structural prejudices that run hundreds of years deep and are still causing harm today. The people affected by them also need representing. These inequalities have been made worse by the decade of Government austerity, which has torn at the social fabric of our city. Crucial public services like schools, hospitals, and health services, youth services and housing, have all had their budgets slashed. That is why I have stood up for Londoners with, for example, insecure status, including the Windrush generation. I have been a strong ally of the LGBTQ+ community and taken action to close City Hall’s gender and ethnicity pay gaps. I have launched the Londoners Hub and the London is Open campaign. I have also worked with businesses, the public sector and trade unions to support the Good Work Standard. I have also appointed the city’s first Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Social Mobility and Community Engagement, to lead on the important issues that I know both you and I care about passionately.

Thank you very much, Mr Mayor. Thank you for those gracious words at the beginning. I have very much enjoyed my time. I would ask you, you say very clearly, it was your running slogan, you were going to be a Mayor for all Londoners. Just after you were elected, we had the referendum. One of the biggest minorities in this capital were people who voted to leave, over 40% of people voted in London to leave. Do you think that you have been a Mayor for them in all of your actions in the years since in essentially trying to get the referendum negated?

I do not know if that is quite fair, Peter, because initially I accepted the result of the referendum and I said we have to make it work. What happened was, when [The Rt Hon] Theresa May [MP, former Prime Minister] came back with the shoddy deal she did, what I said was this still is a million miles away from what the Brexiteers promised. In those circumstances we should put it back to the public in relation to: is this what they were voting for? But we have left the European Union (EU) now, the period has ended, and I accept the vote of the British public and I want to make it work. I am not keen to look backwards. I want to make Brexit a success for our country because that is where we are.

We have to look backwards, Mr Mayor, because you were very clear at the beginning, and here we are at the end of a term, you were very clear at the end you are going to be Mayor for all Londoners. If you were thinking of that 40% of people who voted to leave, you had a very funny way of showing it I would say.

Could you take this opportunity, maybe, particularly with the situation in London with the vaccine, etc -- you once called the EU to me, when I asked you a question, your “beloved EU”. Do you still think it is your beloved EU when you look at the way they have been behaving over the vaccine, the diabolical politics that they have been playing?  Do you condemn that?

I think it is possible to be a proud European, to be disappointed --

You are not a proud European, Mr Mayor, it is not a question of that.

Can you allow Mr Mayor to answer the question, please?

It is my fault, sorry, I did not give Peter a chance. I think it is possible to be a proud European, to be disappointed with the EU, and to think the EU have got it completely wrong in their behaviour in relation to the vaccines, not least yesterday. The threats being made by the EU president I think are wrong. What is important is that we put out our thanks to those in our country who have made the vaccine rollout so successful, not least the Government Minister [for COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment], Nadhim Zahawi [MP], who I spoke to this week.

Mr Mayor, coming just right up to date, if you do not want to look backwards, we are coming right up to date to your Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm. The latest poll on that shows that 42% of Londoners do not back it. They think it is a bad idea. If you want to be Mayor for all Londoners, you should scrap this. It is a terrible idea.

The most important poll that I am focused on is the one on 6 May [2021], once the campaign begins. I am quite clear that when I look at the public realm in our city it does not properly reflect the contribution made by diverse Londoners, women, people who are disabled, black Londoners, Asian, minority ethnic Londoners, those from the LGBTQ+ community. I am unclear why you are so frightened of proper diversity. What are you scared of, Peter?

I knew you would say “frightened”. It is not a question of that. You are spinning it in a very, very positive way about representation, the implicit thing being that it is in the future. This was born at a time when you were very clear about it at the time, and it is about the removal of statues.

No.

You said it in your press release when you said that London was born of a bygone era, which would indeed be history, Mr Mayor. The fact is that I have never known people be so demoralised and dismayed by this attack on, not just London’s heritage but on Britain’s heritage. This is Britain’s capital, Mr Mayor.

The --

I mean it is not --

Let Mr Mayor answer.

There were people like you, including you probably, who were unhappy when we put up a statue of a woman in Parliament Square. Parliament did not come falling down. Parliament is still there. It did not mean that somehow [Sir] Winston Churchill [former Prime Minister] or others were in some way belittled by having a statue of a woman there. Similarly, Peter, I do not think anybody else will feel frightened by street names, by murals, by buildings, even dare I say statues, to diversity.

You talked about removing them and when you originally announced this it was the height of all of those demonstrations. You are wheeling back a little bit on this now. But the fact is that London is Britain’s capital, so what happens here and what you have power over to do has resonance and means an awful lot to people around the country. You are talking about this country’s history and heritage. You did say about removal of statues, Mr Mayor, because I remember the press release, I went over it with a fine-tooth comb, 42% of Londoners do not want this, Mr Mayor. If you want to be a Mayor for all Londoners, please scrap it. It is a terrible idea. Thank you.