UK
Susan Hall announced as Conservative candidate for London mayor
Susan Hall has been selected as the Conservative candidate for London mayor.
She will face the current mayor, Sadiq Khan, when the next election is held in May 2024.
Ms Hall, who has served on the London Assembly since 2017, won the race with 57% of the vote, compared with 43% for her opponent, Mozammel Hossain.
In a statement, Ms Hall said it was a “huge honour to be the Conservative candidate for mayor of London”.
“I am so grateful to everyone for their support,” she said.
“I would also like to pay tribute to Moz for his positive and hard-fought campaign. Over the coming months, I will work tirelessly to defeat Sadiq Khan and offer Londoners the change we need.”
Read more: Susan Hall – Salon owner turned mayoral candidate
Conservative Party chair Greg Hands welcomed Ms Hall’s victory, saying she had “the vision and vigour to take the fight to Sadiq Khan”.
He added: “Both candidates ran excellent campaigns and I want to thank them for their hard work and dedication to the people of London. Now we unite behind Susan, working together to get this incredible city back on track.”
Ms Hall announced she was running for London mayor on a platform of safety – and claimed she was “the candidate Sadiq Khan fears the most”.
Tackling crime, the housing crisis and ULEZ were all high on Ms Hall’s list of priorities. She also pledged to “hunt down and lock up” muggers and burglars by creating a special team within the Metropolitan Police.
The Tory contest was a two-horse race between Ms Hall and Mr Hossain after the third candidate, Daniel Korski, quit the contest last month after a TV producer accused him of groping her a decade ago – an allegation he strenuously denies.
At the time, Ms Hall said Mr Korski “fought a hard campaign with lots of fresh ideas” but that the allegations against him were “serious and it is right that they are investigated in the proper way”.
London Labour described Ms Hall as a “hard-right politician who couldn’t be more out of touch with our city and its values”.
A spokesperson said: “She’s an outspoken supporter of Trump, Boris Johnson and a hard Brexit. She cheered Liz Truss’s mini-budget, which sent mortgages and rents soaring. She doesn’t stand up for women. And she hates London’s diversity.
“Londoners deserve better than a candidate who represents the worst of the Tory failure and incompetence over the last 13 years.
“The London election next year will be a two-horse race and the choice is clear – a Labour mayor with a positive vision who will continue to build a fairer, greener and safer London for everyone, or the extreme Tory candidate, who stands for cuts to London’s public services, inequality and division. The Tories have failed the country. They can’t be trusted to run London.”
Sadiq Khan
Who is Susan Hall?
Ms Hall is from Harrow in northwest London, where she owns a hair salon and raised her family.
She worked in her father’s garage after finishing school and said she originally wanted to be a mechanic but struggled to get into technical college as a woman.
She was elected to Harrow Council in 2006 and went on to lead the council from 2013 to 2014.
In 2017 she was elected to the London Assembly, replacing now cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch after she took up her seat in parliament.
She became deputy leader for the London Assembly Conservatives in 2018 and served as leader from 2019 to 2023.
Analysis: Result will be relief for Tories
For many voters, the response to the Conservatives’ London mayoral candidate Susan Hall may be: Susan Who?
Ms Hall has been a member of the London Assembly for five years and previously served as the Conservative group leader.
Mozammel Hossain, the defeated candidate, was even less well-known – a criminal barrister with no previous political experience at all.
But perhaps the lack of reputation may prove to be an advantage in a contest against Labour’s Sadiq Khan, one of the UK’s most well-known politicians – and increasingly notorious with some voters angry about his plans to expand ULEZ to all London boroughs at the end of August.
Mr Khan, bidding for his third term in office, argues the policy is needed to fight air pollution and protect Londoners’ health. It means people will have to pay £12.50 a day to drive old polluting vehicles and is likely to be the key battleground of the mayoral election next May.
Ms Hall has promised to halt ULEZ expansion on day one.
The Conservatives’ efforts to choose a candidate has been bumpy.
Paul Scully, the minister for London, had widely been seen as the Tory frontrunner but wasn’t shortlisted (perhaps because Rishi Sunak could ill-afford yet another by-election in an suburban seat, Sutton and Cheam, which had previously been a Liberal Democrat stronghold).
The third shortlisted candidate, former Downing Street advisor Daniel Korski, had to quit the race last month, after he was accused of groping a TV producer a decade ago. He denies the claim.
After all the turmoil the Conservatives will be glad to have settled on a fresh candidate to rally around.