Sadiq Khan’s ex-night czar cashes in

Sadiq Khan may have collected a knighthood – but he is still missing a czar. It is now three months since Amy Lamé announced she was standing down as the Mayor’s ‘Night Czar’ and a successor is yet to be found. Lamé role was to champion London’s nightlife – so it is a shame then that, on her watch, more than a quarter of the capital’s nightclubs closed.

Still, that didn’t stop Khan from signing off multiple inflation-busting pay-hikes, including a 40 per cent increase just after the 2021 mayoral election. Lamé’s final salary – after eight years in the role – eventually topped out more than £132,000 a year. She eventually quit in October but was back in the headlines in November after claiming that the closure of the gay nightclub Heaven was due to ‘institutional homophobia’ – rather than the fact that a woman was allegedly raped in the vicinity of the venue by a member of security staff.