Is Sadiq Khan paying the political price of Covid?

When the London Mayoral election was delayed due to the pandemic, no one was particularly outraged: the prospect of Sadiq Khan’s re-election seemed secure and Shaun Bailey, the Tory challenger, was nowhere to be seen. But that might be changing. Internal polling by the Tory party, leaked to the Telegraph, suggests that Londoners have not been best pleased at the city’s recent fate – and Bailey is only seven points behind, at 35 to Khan’s 42 per cent. This is quite the difference from a March YouGov poll putting Bailey at a fairly hopeless 23 per cent.

It’s not that Bailey has been much more visible – but it’s easy to see why Londoners might have reason to panic. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak is about the only politician to have done anything serious to help city life, with his eat-out-to-help-out scheme. The Mayor’s office hasn’t exactly encouraged a return to the city centre.