Zac goldsmith

Trailing in the polls with three days to go until the London mayoral elections, Zac Goldsmith continues to attack his rival Sadiq Khan by accusing him of having links with extremists.   It is a pretty desperate strategy, reduced to making the charge that Khan has ‘shared a platform’ with extremists.   It is also somewhat undermined by the revelation that Goldsmith himself has been photographed smiling alongside Suliman Gani, the Tooting Iman who is subject of many of the claims.  Gani also appears to have shared platforms with Conservative MP for Battersea, Jane Ellison, on a number of occasions. But one thing puzzles me.  While Goldsmith’s campaign has stooped to a relentlessly negative

Zac Goldsmith came in for a fair amount of criticism yesterday after writing a piece in the Mail on Sunday that, among other things, pointed out that Sadiq Khan criticised Labour’s decision to suspend Ken Livingstone in 2006 when he compared a Jewish Evening Standard journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard. Reviewing the papers on Marr, Owen Jones called it ‘another example’ of a ‘poisonous’ and ‘disgraceful’ campaign that had tried to brand Khan as an extremist simply because he’s a Muslim. He called it ‘an attempt to tap into anti-Muslim prejudice’ and urged Conservatives to tackle Islamophobia as vigorously as his own party is tackling anti-Semitism. But is

Yes, Labour is in the worst kind of turmoil – but don’t expect Zac Goldsmith to be able to turn it to his advantage. His overall problem is rather neatly exemplified by the above picture: will Londoners vote for a bloke who can’t even hold a pint glass, let alone drink its contents? Fair enough, Zac may not be a beer man – Gordon Brown only ever drank wine or champagne – but in which case why do a photocall in a pub? With Boris Johnson? Yet more proof that, while Zac hired Lynton Crosby’s firm, the Wizard from Oz hasn’t been nearly involved enough.

As Sadiq Khan continues to lead the polls in the mayoral race, the Labour candidate has managed to brush off much criticism over his links to unsavoury characters by putting it down to ‘dog whistle’ politics. However, the MP for Tooting may have greater difficulty fending off the latest line of attack to come his way. Writing in the Sunday Times, Lord Sugar — the former Labour peer who resigned from the party after the general election — has launched a blistering attack on Khan. Sugar accuses Khan of having ‘single-handedly wrecked the Labour Party’. The Apprentice star says he cut up his party membership card after Labour turned anti-business under Ed Miliband —

To Aqua Nueva on Regent Street where the Spanish bar was transformed into a Mediterranean getaway for one night only to celebrate the Ibiza Preservation Fund… or Zac Goldsmith’s mayoral campaign, depending on who you spoke to. While guests including Bryan Adams and George Lamb gathered at the champagne-fuelled bash to show their support for the conservation trust — which aims to help preserve Ibiza and Formentera’s countryside and marine areas — its co-founder Ben Goldsmith couldn’t resist going off piste. In his speech on the fund, Goldsmith tried to tell the crowd about his brother’s mayoral campaign. ‘Zac would be here if he could, but he’s a little busy,’ he explained,

As the European referendum campaign gains momentum, the London mayoral election has had to take a backseat in recent weeks when it comes to setting the news agenda. Tonight the mayoral candidates had a chance to turn this around as part of the BBC’s London’s Mayor debate. While Respect candidate George Galloway was left out of the line-up, the five main candidates — Zac Goldsmith, Sadiq Khan, Caroline Pidgeon, Sian Berry and Peter Whittle — joined Andrew Neil for the biggest debate of the campaign. With the election widely seen to be a two-horse race between Khan and Goldsmith, the pair dominated the evening as their campaign feuds bubbled to the surface. The first topic on the agenda was

The Labour plotters who dream of ousting Jeremy Corbyn had high hopes for the local elections on 5 May. They envisaged a moment of humiliation for their leader in Scotland, Wales and England; a moment that would prove beyond doubt that the party’s leftwards lurch had narrowed its appeal and consigned it to the electoral wilderness. A good time, in other words, to stage a coup. Corbyn’s loyalists, for their part, had been preparing to blame the rebels and their constant sniping. Neither side imagined what now looks likely: that Labour might soon be celebrating a stunning victory in London. The party is expecting a sharp decline in its total

Oh dear. With Sadiq Khan leading the polls ahead of the upcoming London mayoral election, Zac Goldsmith has his work cut out when it comes to convincing swing voters to vote blue. As part of this, the Old Etonian needs to show that he has a firm understanding of Londoners’ needs. Alas, his efforts hit a bump in the road today thanks to an awkward BBC interview. The Conservative mayoral candidate was quizzed by Norman Smith in the back of a cab for the Victoria Derbyshire show. Goldsmith was quick to make the point that he — like the majority of Londoners — regularly uses the tube. However, when Smith proceeded to quiz

In March, Zac Goldsmith was named the most ‘pro-business‘ London mayoral candidate in a ComRes poll. According to the survey, 65 per cent of Londoners think Goldsmith is pro-business, compared with 39 per cent for Sadiq Khan. However, despite this vote of confidence in Goldsmith’s approach to business, a closer look at the Conservative mayoral candidate’s CV suggests that he may actually be lacking in business acumen on a personal level. Despite several attempts at running businesses, few of his ventures have taken off. In fact, of eight companies he has been involved with, six have dissolved and one is losing money. One of Goldsmith’s first attempts at business was as a director

Zac Goldsmith’s mayoral campaign hit a bum note this month when his attempts to reach out to the Indian community backfired. The Conservative MP found himself accused of ‘racially profiling’ voters who have Indian sounding names with patronising leaflets. Happily he appears to have a different plan in place when it comes to winning over the Pakistani vote. Step forward Imran Khan. The Pakistani politician, and former cricketer, has endorsed Goldsmith’s mayoral bid. Khan says Goldsmith has the ‘leadership capabilities to make a great mayor’: Zac Goldsmith is running for mayor of London. Have known him for 20 yrs. He is an honourable man with strong convictions & compassion. 1/2 —

Zac Goldsmith’s campaign for mayor is nothing if not ambitious. Despite lagging behind Sadiq Khan in the polls, the Conservative candidate remains hopeful that he can beat the Labour candidate in the mayoral race. In fact, Goldsmith’s team appear to be so confident that they are even going after individuals who are unlikely to be convinced to vote blue. Step forward Ken Livingstone. The former Labour mayor — and hard-left socialist — has been on the receiving end of campaign literature from the Goldsmith campaign: https://twitter.com/mikejoslin/status/710227415012921344 Mr S suspects Goldsmith will need a back-up plan, if he is counting on Livingstone’s support.

As Zac Goldsmith fights to be the next Mayor of London against Labour’s Sadiq Khan, he is striving to appeal to all Londoners. Alas, somewhere in the process of doing this, he appears to have got a bit confused. In an interview with Pink News — the news website aimed at the LGBT community, Goldsmith said that he wanted to be a mayor for everyone, employing the term ‘pansexual’ to try and make his point: Pink News: Would you like to be the mayor for everyone? ZG: I would use the term pansexual here, if my understanding is correct. https://vine.co/v/iXa9lEB5Jrx While Mr S suspects that Goldsmith means that he wants to appeal

The worldwide Uber debate is quite helpful in that it forces politicians to answer a simple question: are you for the people, or the vested interests? Sadiq Khan, the Labour candidate for Mayor, declared his hand today in an LBC phone-in. Challenged by a (Scottish) black cab driver about his views on Uber, he said: There are almost 100,000 private hire vehicles in London. Over the last three years there has been, roughly speaking, a 10,000 increase in the number of private hire vehicles. The black taxis are now as low as 23,000, for the first time in a generation, there are fewer people doing the knowledge. And I’m afraid

Since Sadiq Khan was elected as Labour’s mayoral candidate, he has made an effort to distance himself from Jeremy Corbyn. Although Khan was one of the Labour MPs to help Corbyn get onto the ballot, after Khan won the nomination he turned on the Labour leader — suggesting that Corbyn’s refusal to sing the National Anthem showed he could be unfit to be Prime Minister. Now it seems that Khan just can’t help himself even when he is trying to attack the Tories. His team have released an attack ad on Zac Goldsmith — the Tory candidate for mayor — in the form of a mocked-up CV. The ‘CV’ lists the reasons Goldsmith is