Why did Sadiq Khan say I was ‘thick’?

Sadiq Khan thinks that I’m ‘thick’. That, at least, is what he told me during a fractious Mayor’s Question Time last week. The Mayor lashed out after I said he was ‘a bit slippy’. Khan then responded by saying: ‘Honestly chair, for someone who reads a lot, he ain’t half thick is he?’.

To be fair to the Mayor, he has since said sorry – and I’ve accepted his apology. But the exchange was a telling one: it reveals that Khan, who has been London’s Mayor since 2016, is rattled. And the backlash over Ulez (Ultra Low Emission Zone) is to blame. 

I’ve been digging away on Ulez for months. Khan has done a fantastic political job coupling the Ulez expansion to perceived improvements in air quality. I get that, it seems a no-brainer. Get polluting cars off the road and, hey presto, clean air! The trouble is the evidence on this is not as clear cut as Khan might like people to think. But