London's pro-Trump contingent
Plus: Tube drivers offered four-day week, the King’s London moneymakers, and Robbie Williams’s fungus-riddled tree
Morning — when Donald Trump visited the UK six years ago, London was full of protestors. A giant balloon depicting the president as an angry baby became the symbol of it all — Sadiq Khan had granted permission for it to fly near Parliament. But in 2024, something has changed. Whereas polling used to show Londoners as the most anti-Trump in the UK, they now show the opposite. The capital’s surprising MAGA contingent leads your Sunday round-up below.
Plus: Tube drivers offered four-day week, the King’s London moneymakers, and Robbie Williams’s fungus-riddled tree.
BTW: we've been left rather frazzled from covering the US election for our journalism day jobs, so this week's Spy big read is a bit delayed. Expect the scoop in your inbox on Tuesday or Wednesday.
What we’ve spied
🇺🇸 A majority of Brits say they're unhappy about Donald Trump's win in the US presidential election — except in London. Polling conducted by YouGov on November 6, the day Trump was declared to have beaten his Democrat rival Kamala Harris, found that 57% of British adults were either fairly or very unhappy with the result. But only 48% of Londoners said they were unhappy, the lowest of any region in Britain and far below the firmly anti-Trump Welsh, of whom 62% said they were unhappy. On the flip side, 25% of Londoners — one in four — told YouGov they were either fairly or very happy about Trump's win, compared to 20% of all British adults and again the highest of any region. Londoners were also more likely to say Trump will be good for the UK, though most think he'll be bad.
Pure speculation, but it might be because YouGov's polling shows older Brits tend to be more unhappy with the result — over 65s were the most anti-Trump in the poll — and the capital is younger on average. Trump performed particularly well with young American men in the election. Perhaps there are similar MAGA tendencies among London's twenty-something banking and tech bros. Or perhaps some Londoners feel similarly to some US voters who shifted to Trump over dissatisfaction with the Biden administration’s handling of Israel-Gaza and Ukraine. Or maybe, given the unexpected scale of Trump’s victory, we just shouldn’t trust polls. In any case, London’s pro-Trump contingent hold a minority view. Sadiq Khan, a major critic of Trump during his first term, who was once called a "stone cold loser" by the president, issued a statement of reassurance in response to the US election result. The mayor said: "An important reminder today for Londoners: our city is — and will always be — for everyone. We will always be pro-women, pro-diversity, pro-climate and pro-human rights." In contrast, Khan's Tory rival in this year's mayoral election, Susan Hall, has been having a whale of a time. Since the election result, the London Assembly member has shared on her X pics of the Rest is Politics hosts looking glum about the result, a video of a Democrat supporter screaming into the camera and a meme of Trump serving Keir Starmer and David Lammy humble pie.
🚇 Tube drivers have been offered a four-day working week as part of a deal to avert strikes. The offer was made in a letter sent by Nick Dent, TfL's director of customer operations, on November 5 to Finn Brennan of the Aslef trade union, which represents Tube drivers and had been planning strikes for November 7 and November 12. Dent pledged to “set out a proposal for delivering an average four-day working week” in exchange for Aslef accepting a 3.8% pay rise and calling off the strike, which the union did shortly after the offer. TfL also agreed to paid meal breaks as well as an extra week's paid paternity leave. Tube drivers currently work a five-day, 35-hour week — but it's unclear if the four-day plan would mean an overall reduction in hours. Aslef seemed to suggest so in its statement, but sources tell the Telegraph that there will be no overall change in hours. Brennan tells the Spy he is "pleased" with the four-day offer: "Aslef has always been ready to negotiate changes that improve working conditions for our members and lead to a better service for passengers". There's also been criticism of the deal — Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory shadow housing secretary, said it'll lead to "lower productivity" and "worse customer service". He posted to X: "The Unions say 'Jump!', Labour 'How high?'".
🚂 Another big London transport story: plans to redevelop Liverpool Street station have been reworked following opposition from heritage groups and celeb allies. Last year Network Rail and the property company Sellar, which developed the Shard, unveiled a £1.5bn redevelopment of Liverpool Street, which involved demolishing parts of the existing station and building an office block above it. The plans were then criticised for being "oversized" and "insensitive" to the station's Victorian character by groups like Historic England as well as public figures like broadcaster Stephen Fry and artist Tracey Emin. 2,000 people also wrote in to the consultation to complain. So Network Rail has now published scaled-back plans, which will still see new offices built but they don't sit on top of the old hotel building, in theory preserving its historic appearance. Network Rail hopes the development will fund improvements to Liverpool Street, including more lifts and escalators. The latest consultation page is here.
🔥 One last transport-related bit: Westminster council has announced a joint £1bn scheme with central government to heat London landmarks using the Tube network and the River Thames. The "heat network" would use surplus heat from the Underground and sewers to warm historic, listed and World Heritage Site buildings in central, like the Houses of Parliament, Downing Street and the National Gallery, giving them access to low-carbon heating without affecting their external look. The exact buildings being covered are yet to be confirmed, but construction on the project is earmarked for 2026.
👑 A central office block, a warehouse rented to the NHS, and a green belt housing development — a new investigation has revealed King Charles and Prince William are making a pretty penny off their London property portfolios. The Times and Channel 4's Dispatches have uncovered every plot of land owned by the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, the King's and Prince's private fiefdoms which have a special agreement with the Treasury exempting them from paying tax on their corporate profits. In London, this includes Camelford House, a 1960s office block in Vauxhall that's unofficially known as 'charity towers' because so many charities have rented offices there, including Macmillan Cancer Support and Comic Relief. The Times reports the Duchy of Cornwall collected at least £22m in rent from the building over the past 19 years. The investigation has also found that the Duchy of Lancaster is set to make £11.4m over 15 years from a warehouse near Bermondsey that it’s renting out to Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust to store ambulances. One final moneymaker of note is the Duchy of Lancaster's involvement in the Hadley Wood housing development, a controversial scheme in north London that's planned on green belt land.
🍖 The City of London has halted — but not completely dropped — its plans to move Smithfield and Billingsgate markets into a new purpose-built site in Dagenham. The City of London Corporation is the owner and manager of the historic meat and fish markets, and has been planning to relocate them into deep east London by 2028 so it can redevelop their former sites. Smithfield, where meat has been traded since the 12th century, would become an arts and culture hub, while Billingsgate, the centre of the capital's fish market since the 16th century, would become a mixed-use housing scheme. But a recent report to City's governing body has revealed the plans have been put "on hold" amid a review of the project and its "financial sustainability". Many traders had been against the plans, fearing the impact of moving out of inner London, but also challenging the move was Havering council, the borough of the new site, which made use of a 776-year-old law preventing markets being set up within a day's sheep drive of its own Romford market. Related: a historic street near Smithfield market is getting a pedestrian-friendly makeover.
👮 LONDON'S FINEST 👮 Politicians need to be "aware of the weight of their words," Met police chief Sir Mark Rowley pointedly said this week, as debate continues to rage over the shooting of Chris Kaba and subsequent trial of firearms officer Martyn Blake. On Monday, Sal Naseem, who led the investigation into the Kaba shooting on behalf of the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, spoke publicly for the first time since Blake was acquitted. Naseem defended the decision to bring charges, telling BBC Panorama that he had not been convinced Kaba had presented a sufficient danger to justify being shot. Some have been highly critical of the decision to charge Blake with the murder of Kaba, who was later revealed to be a gang member — including Rowley, who immediately after Blake's acquittal called for armed police to be made exempt from criminal charges for shootings unless prosecutors can prove they departed from training. Rowley went further this Friday, this time taking aim at "people in positions of authority" who had fuelled "a dangerous narrative" about the shooting of Kaba. He didn't specify who he meant, but perhaps it was Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the Clapham and Brixton Hill MP who supported Kaba's parents, or Hackney MP Diane Abbott, who at the time of Kaba's death in September 2022 wrote he had suffered a "terrible fate". Some think Rowley might have also been taking aim at Sadiq Khan, who this week was criticised for being "too sympathetic" towards Kaba at a mayor's question time in City Hall. Khan was also asked to apologise to Blake, but he declined to explicitly say sorry, instead saying: "Can I put on record my thanks to all our firearm officers who do an incredibly difficult job under extraordinary circumstances and pressures". Rowley was also grilled in City Hall this week, telling London Assembly members at a meeting on Thursday that Kaba's gang, the 67, had been responsible for 10 shootings in the capital this year. One last thing on the Met: on Friday the force referred itself to the police watchdog after receiving complaints over its historical investigations into claims of sexual offences by Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed.
🏗️ PLANNING CORNER 🏗️ One of London's biggest new housing developments is getting even bigger — extra funding for Barking Riverside was approved this week that will effectively double its size. Homes England, the government's housing and regeneration agency, has approved a £124m funding package for the east London scheme, which will take the total number of homes being built at the 443-acre brownfield site by the Thames from 10,000 to 20,000. Barking Riverside is a joint project by the mayor of London and housing association L&Q, and it's truly massive — along with the houses, the development is getting multiple schools, two large parks, a care home, a hotel, and student accommodation. More mega development news out in north London this week: construction has started on Northwick Parkside, a 1,600-home development in Brent. The project is essentially being seen as creating a whole new town — the first phase of the scheme will deliver 654 homes and is expected to be complete by 2028.
Some more planning bits: Jeremy Corbyn is among those who are opposing a 27-storey student tower in Archway in Islington; the historic Globe pub in Marylebone has narrowly avoided having its licensing hours restricted after a single resident's noise complaints; residents of luxury flats in Borough have blocked plans to turn railway arches opposite their homes into late-night bars; and a developer in Canada Water has deployed security guards to stop cyclists riding on a bridge it's just opened.
🗺️ FROM THE BOROUGHS 🗺️ Another week, another battle over a Gail's opening on a London high street. This time the upmarket coffee chain is trying to open in Primrose Hill, and locals have told the Camden New Journal its presence could take customers away from indie shops. The shop is opening sometime next year — in the meantime, perhaps there'll be some studying of how Walthamstow Village residents recently failed to stop Gail's opening on their high street. Down in south London, Catford residents are mourning the loss of their only cinema, which has been shut since October 29. Catford Mews, a cinema and food hall, was reclaimed by Lewisham council after it fell behind on rent — the council claims the operator, Really Local Group, owed more than £650,000 and had been in arrears 2019. Out west, Kensington and Chelsea council lost its battle against two "megaboats" moored at a harbour in Chelsea. The council had been trying to force out the two boats, used for residential purposes, but has now had its eviction quashed by the planning inspectorate. And in east London, catcalling could lead to a fine of up to £1,000, after Barking & Dagenham council added sexual harassment to its public spaces protection order.
🔍 And finally, we leave you with:
Snobs, scandals, dodgy deals: my life in the London art world (Times £)
Singer Robbie Williams battling to fell a tree at his London home (Daily Mail)
Time Out's 50 best pubs in London for 2024 (Time Out)
A dystopian London rental event (TikTok)
A wave of home invasions in Highgate’s millionaires’ row (Daily Mail)
Weeping over graffiti on the Tube (TikTok)
The 7 Tube and Overground stations getting new toilets (Londonist)
Squatters taking over the closed Dogstar pub in Brixton (Standard)
Will the world's super wealthy still buy in London? (City AM)