Mayor under investigation over Taylor Swift tickets
Plus: new Jack the Ripper evidence, China’s super embassy, and Scientology adverts on the Tube
Morning — controversy over political freebies has simmered down for Keir Starmer, but it may just be getting started for Sadiq Khan. The mayor ended his week learning that he will face a standards investigation over Taylor Swift tickets he received for free last year. Why the freebies have drawn the attention of City Hall investigators leads your Sunday round-up below.
Plus: new Jack the Ripper evidence, China’s super embassy, and Scientology adverts on the Tube.
What we've spied
🚨 City Hall's standards watchdog has launched an investigation into Sir Sadiq Khan over his acceptance of free tickets to a Taylor Swift concert last year. The Greater London Authority's (GLA) monitoring officer will now assess whether Khan “exercised an appropriate level of caution” when he accepted the tickets, worth roughly £3,000 and paid for by a private events company that's previously been contracted to do work for City Hall. The gift has proven a continual thorn in the mayor's side, having been leapt on by London Conservatives at a time when members of the national Labour government have been scrutinised over their own freebies. The investigation into Khan was announced on Friday, following a request to the Greater London Authority's (GLA) monitoring officer made by City Hall Tories, asking to probe whether the mayor had breached rules on accepting gifts and hospitality. Khan had received six tickets to watch Swift from a box at Wembley Stadium on August 15, one of eight London gigs she performed as part of her Eras Tour. The tickets were paid for by a private events company called LS Events, which has previously been hired by the GLA to help manage arrangements for the Queen's funeral in 2021 and to run fan zones during the 2020 Euros. Khan's old Tory mayoral rival, assembly member Susan Hall, had complained to the monitoring officer that the mayor had declared the tickets 10 days late and initially undervalued the tickets at just £194 each in the gifts register. She also pointed out LS Events's previous contracted work for the GLA. But the monitoring officer, Rory McKenna, says his investigation will just focus on the issue of “appropriate level of caution”.
It's a somewhat fuzzy term — but the GLA's gifts and hospitality policy, which applies to the mayor and other City Hall officials, mentions “caution” in the following way:
Treat with caution any offer or gift, favour or hospitality that is made to you. Your personal reputation and that of the GLA can be seriously jeopardised if you inappropriately accept gifts or hospitality. Be aware of the wider situation in which the offer is made. It can also be an offence to accept a fee or reward for undertaking your duties. The GLA recognises that a refusal may cause embarrassment or offence, but this must be balanced with your other responsibilities.
A few pages later:
Particular caution should be taken where any gift and/or hospitality is offered from any company that holds a contract with the GLA or who is likely to bid for a future contract with the GLA
Back in October last year, the Standard's Ross Lydall asked Khan if he would follow the lead of prime minister Keir Starmer, who had announced he would be covering the cost of his own free Swift tickets, but the mayor declined. Reacting to Friday's announcement, a spokesperson for the mayor said: “The mayor has no involvement in the procurement process for GLA events, nor in the tendering of these contracts. The mayor's office will continue to ensure all the right processes are followed, and looks forward to explaining the approach that was taken in this instance.” While we're on standards in public life — north London MP Tulip Siddiq resigned from the government this week over a two-bed flat in Kings Cross that she was gifted by an ally of her aunt, the former prime minister of Bangladesh.
💰 News of the investigation into Khan came the day after he revealed his mayoral budget for the coming year, which includes a tax rise of 4%. The mayor has proposed increasing his chunk of council tax, which is paid by Londoners on top of their borough rates, in order to provide more funding to the Met Police and London Fire Brigade. For someone living in a Band D property, it's an extra £19 a year, with £14 of that going to the Met, which has been making much noise lately about potentially cutting officer numbers over a lack of funding. The mayor's financial plans will now be debated by the London Assembly, and potentially approved at a meeting on February 25.
👨⚖️ The teenager who fatally stabbed schoolgirl Elianne Andam in Croydon in 2023 was found guilty of murder on Thursday. Lawyers for Hassan Sentamu, now 18 but 17 at the time of the crime, had attempted to present a defence of diminished responsibility, claiming Sentamu was not in control of his actions during the attack due to his autism. But the jury was unconvinced, convicting him of murder as well as illegally possessing a knife. The jury had heard how Sentamu had repeatedly stabbed Andam with a kitchen knife in “white-hot anger” after she stood up for her friend, his ex-girlfriend, in a row over a teddy bear. Sentamu was arrested by the Met within 90 minutes of the crime, which took place on September 27, 2023 outside a shopping centre in Croydon. The jury were also told of Sentamu's troubled past and history of violence, including previous threats he had made to other children. Following the verdict, the Andam family said they would continue to campaign against knife crime, particularly towards young women and girls. “We will be sharing her story and working toward a world where no family has to endure such heartbreak,” a representative said. Also on Thursday, two teenagers were charged with the murder of Kelyan Bokassa, the 14-year-old who was stabbed to death in Woolwich last week. It's in this context that Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley gave an interview to the Times this week, in which he said black teenagers dying on London's streets risked becoming normalised without urgent action to tackle knife crime.
🕰️ Now for much, much older crimes — there's been a growing campaign to reopen the investigation into Jack the Ripper, in the wake of new evidence potentially proving the identity of the East End serial killer. Descendants of the five women murdered by the unidentified serial killer during the autumn of 1888 issued a call this week for a fresh inquest, after the DNA of a suspect — Aaron Kosminksi — was detected on a bloodstained shawl found on one of the victims. Kosminski, a Polish barber, was investigated by police at the time but never arrested due to a lack of evidence, and indeed his descendants have also backed the new campaign. It's up to the UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, to decide if such an inquest could go ahead, but no word yet.
🚇 TfL has doubled down on its commitment to deploying artificial intelligence at its stations, following the death of a passenger who had fallen onto the tracks at Stratford station. The death was the subject of a Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report published on Thursday, which found that, on December 26, 2023, 72-year-old Brian Mitchell stumbled and fell off a Jubilee line platform, and lay undiscovered by staff on the track for around 5 minutes. Four separate trains, all in self-driving mode, would go on to strike him until, 25 minutes later, he was noticed and the alarm was raised. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The RAIB criticised TfL over the incident, finding that the transport authority had failed to quantify the risk of platform falls at Stratford. It also suggested that the self-driving mode, which enables Jubilee line trains to pull into Stratford station automatically, may have been at fault, because the drivers' “level of attention was reduced due to the use of automatic train operation”. In response, TfL has highlighted the technology it's currently trialling on DLR platforms at Custom House station, where it's using camera feeds and AI to identify and detect objects on the rails. Previously, TfL conducted an AI trial at Willesden Green station that alerted staff when it detected people were standing too close to the edge of the platform.
💼 For a sign of which way the wind is blowing on WFH in London, there's the bank Citigroup, which this week was revealed to be spending more than £1bn revamping its Canary Wharf office skyscraper. As reported by the Financial Times, the bank group is ploughing hundreds of millions into upgrading its old skyscraper — the 42-storey 25 Canada Square — as part of a push to get its employees back into the office. The FT reports: “Citi's ambitious designs for its project include punching through floors and adding new staircases to create multilevel ‘villages’ for different teams”. It's not the only bank recommitting to its central London office space, as Morgan Stanley is about to embark on a renovation of its Canary Wharf building too. It comes after HSBC announced it was leaving its skyscraper in the district in 2027, which has prompted some big-picture plans for the tower that involve taking chunks out of the facade. The next 'one to watch' in Canary Wharf is the law firm Clifford Chance, which will have to decide whether it's staying or going when the company's lease for its building expires in 2028. It comes amid an increasing number of companies restricting WFH — the BBC published a piece last week highlighting a few of the London employers doing just that, including WPP and the Met Police.
🏗️ PLANNING CORNER 🏗️ Around 100 families living in Aldgate have been in the spotlight this week, given that they may soon be living next door to a Chinese super embassy. Friday was the deadline for the submission of evidence to the Chinese government’s plans to turn the former Royal Mint building, near the Tower of London, into its biggest embassy in Europe. It’s the second time China has submitted the project, having previously been rejected in 2023, but the recent change in the UK government seems to spurred on another attempt. The plans were called in by local government secretary Angela Rayner, and her fellow ministers and MPs have been debating whether to approve them, given diplomatic and security concerns. But as for locals next door, they seem fiercely opposed, with residents having written in to say they don’t want to be near a “fortress”, a hotspot for protests, or even a potential terrorism target. Local borough council Tower Hamlets seems to have heeded such concerns — it voiced its official opposition to the plans back in December, having also rejected the scheme the first time around.
Speaking of Tower Hamlets: councillors on its planning committee this week approved controversial plans for a 17-storey office block in Whitechapel. That was despite the recommendation of the council’s bureaucrats, who had said the scheme should be rejected given its size and potential impact on a nearby primary school. In Woolwich town centre, plans to turn former council offices into hundreds of student rooms and a hotel have been approved by Greenwich council. And in Ealing, permission has been granted to demolish the Gurnell Leisure Centre and turn it into a new water, gym, cafe, BMX track and 300 homes.
🗺️ FROM THE BOROUGHS 🗺️ After departing ways with its previous chief executive after he was arrested for drink-driving, Lambeth council has now found a replacement — and on quite the salary. As Brixton Buzz reports, the council is set to pay incoming chief executive Iain Davis, formerly chief exec at Enfield, a whopping £230,000 a year, which is £40,000 more than his disgraced predecessor, Bayo Dosunmu. Such a deluxe pay packet comes at the same time as the council mulls closing primary schools due to funding, as well as the council’s eviction of 200 of its private tenants because it can’t afford current temporary accommodation arrangements for the borough’s homeless.
Elsewhere: in Southwark, the council has announced it’s investing £1.5m in a new LGBTQ+ nightclub in Bankside, on the site of the former XXL gay club; in Soho, al fresco is once again causing controversy, as Westminster council considers whether to fine two cafes over their outside tables and chairs; and in Hackney, a criminal investigation has been launched after a council-funded property was spotted on Airbnb.
📺 The London media empire of Evening Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev continues to crumble, with his TV channel being the latest piece to fall. London Live has announced that it will cease broadcasting on Monday, January 20, ending a 10-year run, following Lebedev selling off the channel earlier this month to Local TV Ltd. The Freeview channel was launched by Lebedev in 2015 in an attempt to rival BBC London’s local news output with a whole channel worth of coverage, programmes and documentaries about the capital. Staff at the station announced the closure in an Instagram post, writing: "We want to thank you for following and supporting us over the last 10 years. We have loved helping to share the stories that matter in London, making sure the voices that count are heard”. The closure of London Live comes three months after the Standard killed off its daily print edition, replacing it with a weekly magazine.
💨 A private school in south London has been linked to a 27% rise in air pollution. The campaign group Solve the School Run has claimed that parents ferrying their kids to Dulwich College in Range Rovers and SUVs is leading to a detectable rise in nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter in the nearby area. Their analysis involved examining air pollution data for Croxted Road in Herne Hill during morning rush hour, comparing levels of pollution when only state schools were open versus when both state and private schools were open. Dulwich College, which has 1,670 pupils, said it is “committed to supporting its pupils and staff in sustainable travel to and from school each day”.
🧑🚒 London is getting a new fire commissioner, after incumbent Andy Roe announced his retirement. Roe has been in the job for five years, during which time he’s been dealing with the fallout of a wide-ranging review in 2022 into the London Fire Brigade’s toxic culture of misogyny and racism, as well as reforming the brigade in light of recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. Roe said it “had been an honour and a privilege to lead London Fire Brigade”, and Sadiq Khan said Roe had done an “outstanding job” as commissioner. For more on London Fire Brigade, there’s our recent investigation, featuring Roe being handed a giant novelty cheque by the London Freemasons.
🔍 And finally, we leave you with:
A montage of this year’s especially chilly No Trousers Tube Ride (YouTube)
A patchwork roundel to celebrate the new Weaver Overground line (IanVisits)
Interest from Londoners in Spain's 100% tax on foreign-owned homes (X)
Inside a Grade I listed bingo hall up for sale in Tooting (TikTok)
An unusual seat on the Central line (TikTok)
A campaign to save an independent theatre in central London (Crowdfunder)
Timothée Chalamet getting fined for parking a Lime bike at his film premiere (Guardian)
‘Who’s paying for fake five-star reviews of The Ritz?’ (London Centric)
Grace Dent's brutal review of a new rotisserie restaurant near Oxford Circus (Guardian)
The 'London Underground' clothing store in South Korea (TikTok)
A Lewisham station library facing imminent closure (Londonist)
'A torso of a child was found in the Thames. Why don’t we know who he was?' (The Londoner)
Does anyone besides those with an axe to grind actually care? It’s not a big deal versus hundreds of other injustices that would be better suited for an investigation, and it makes our city look good to have public figures at major global events happening in it.