The race to become the Conservative candidate for London Mayor in 2028 now has a third name in it. Businessman Alex Challoner, who also tried for the nomination at the last election, has entered the contest, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reports.
He'll be up against former Home Secretary James Cleverly and Westminster City councillor Festus Akinbusoye.
What he's promising
Challoner has vowed to 'unleash' London, and the first pillar of what he calls the party's 'boldest' ever City Hall campaign is a crackdown on fare dodging.
Under his proposals, uniformed British Transport Police officers would be stationed on ticket gate lines at Tube stations as a visible deterrent, with plain-clothes officers working alongside them across the network. Anyone caught would be stopped, arrested and prosecuted. TfL staff would also be trained to challenge fare dodgers and back up officers on the gates, rather than staying put and noting the incident. Fare dodging is estimated to cost TfL around £190 million a year.
On housing, he has pledged to replace the current London Plan, which runs to hundreds of pages, with a short 30-page document. His team say it would keep 'only the rules London truly needs while tearing up those that stop developers building the homes Londoners want to see built.'
He has also promised to slash VAT on gym memberships to tackle men's mental health issues, and to remove VAT entirely for London's independent brewers through a mayoral rebate.
In his words
'London should be the greatest city on earth. Instead, after ten years of Sadiq Khan, it has been allowed to shrink,' Challoner said. 'People who pay their fare on the tube watch others barge through the barriers. People who work hard cannot find a home. And the places where Londoners go to stay healthy, see their mates and enjoy this city are being squeezed from every direction.
'I am not standing to manage that decline. I am standing to end it. Police on the gates. A London Plan you can read in an afternoon. Tax cuts for the gyms and breweries that keep this city alive. I will unleash London.'
He added: 'This is a choice between winning London and losing for a fourth consecutive time. We will not win by doing what we've always done and saying what we've always said. Conservatives are at our best when we are at our boldest and I intend to prove that by beating Sadiq Khan in 2028.'
How the selection works
Any further candidates had until 30 September to register their interest. A selection panel will then whittle the field down to a final two, and after a series of hustings, Conservative Party members will vote for their chosen candidate. That is believed to be happening before the end of the year.
The mayoral election itself is in 2028, when voters in Walthamstow and across Waltham Forest will help choose who runs City Hall.
