Why is Sadiq Khan talking London down?

Sadiq Khan’s powers as London mayor are relatively limited, but part of his remit is to act as a salesman for London. He is there to talk up the virtues of one of the greatest cities in the world. It was surprising then to see him concede at the weekend that we have to ‘accept the fact that there is potentially an existential threat to central London as we know it.’ This surely is the opposite of what the mayor of London should be saying at this moment in time. It also demonstrates why Sadiq Khan deserves to lose the election in May.

Sadiq Khan already lost my vote months ago when he announced that the next mayoral contest would be a referendum on rent control. Even though I don’t rent out any property, nor think I will be doing so anytime in the near future, this quickly turned me off. Rent controls are a bad idea; they have been repeatedly shown to be poor public policy wherever they have been attempted.