Shaun Bailey pledges to drop 'ridiculous' statue review on first day as London mayor
The Conservative Mayor of London candidate has vowed to drop Sadiq Khan’s “ridiculous” review into statues on day one of his term, as he warned of “summer of discontent”.
In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests last month, the Mayor of London set up a commission to ensure the capital’s monuments reflect the city’s diversity.
However, Shaun Bailey claimed the review will only serve to "drive a wedge between communities", fuelling potential unrest.
In an interview with The Telegraph's Planet Normal podcast today - which you can listen to on the player above, or subscribe to for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your podcast app - Mr Bailey said: “I’m adamant that when I’m mayor I will be removing this ridiculous commission.
“Whitewashing history doesn't help black children. In fact, it just means we increase the chances of committing the same mistakes again and again.
“I think Sadiq Khan has taken a big risk there, putting himself as judge and jury around British history. I just feel like it has a big potential to backfire.”
The mayoral candidate also said that Mr Khan had previously failed to “back the police with a strong stance” during previous Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion protests.
Mr Bailey told the Telegraph's columnist Allison Pearson: “The thing about public order, public safety, a lot of it is about messages you send. Pictures of closed police stations, police units in retreat mean that you emboldened criminals.
“He needs to take a stance and stop tiptoeing around the issue.”
Last week Mr Khan threatened cuts of almost £110 million in policing as a result of a feared £493 million collapse in City Hall’s income.
Accusing him of “playing politics” with such announcements, Mr Bailey said: “We need a mayor that can bargain with Whitehall, we need a mayor that can strike a deal.
“If you have a mayor that the Government can't trust, how is he going to get the best deal for us. It’s utterly ridiculous.”
He also said Mr Khan had attempted to “rewrite history” by boarding up Parliament Square’s statue of Winston Churchill in response to the protests sweeping through London last month.
Insisting he was “proud” of his own British roots, Mr Bailey said the mayor had made it “politically worrying” for people to openly debate historical figures.
He said: “When he boarded it up, it became symbolic of him trying to rewrite history. It became symbolic of him only supporting one half of the argument and picking a fight with the other half of the argument in order to make himself look good.”
Mr Bailey, who admits he still receives racist abuse, also questioned Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to throw his support behind Black Lives Matter.
After taking the knee to support the movement, the Labour leader rowed back on his support of the organisation this week, admitting he found its calls to defund the police “nonsense”.
Mr Bailey said Sir Keir had jumped on the "bandwagon" to appeal to younger voters without examining the organisation's "ridiculous" policies.
He expressed his frustration at the “idea it’s only the Conservative Party” that has to tackle racial injustice.
Mr Bailey said: “When you speak to people of a generation above me who are black, they tell you one of the most racist situations they had to deal with was the unions and the Labour Party's based on those unions, so they've got a question to answer.”
Listen to the podcast at the top of this article, then join the discussion of this week's episode with Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan when they respond to comments below this article at 11am BST on Thursday 2 July .
