Ex-Lib Dem London mayor candidate urges voters to support Sadiq Khan

An ex-Liberal Democrat candidate for London’s mayoralty has urged voters to support her former rival, Sadiq Khan. Siobhán Benita, who used to work as a civil servant, was an independent candidate for the city’s leadership in 2012, receiving almost 300,000 votes.

That race was won by Boris Johnson, who went on to serve a second term. Ms Benita was then selected as the Lib Dem candidate for mayor for the election originally planned for 2020.

However, the poll was postponed until 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and she decided to withdraw after campaigning for 18 months. Now, in a letter being delivered to residents across Kingston and Richmond, the former civil servant has written that she will be backing Mr Khan on May 2 and asked voters to do the same.

READ MORE: ‘I’m covering the London Mayor election – here’s what could stop Sadiq Khan from winning’

Ms Benita wrote: “The London mayoral election on May 2 is now just three weeks away – and there’s so much at stake. That’s why, even though I was the Liberal Democrat candidate for mayor, I’m now urging people who might be considering voting Liberal Democrat to vote for Sadiq Khan.”

Using a metaphor repeatedly deployed by Labour’s City Hall incumbent and his team, she added: “Londoners will now only get one vote for mayor – which means there’s no insurance policy of a second preference. The election this time is a two-horse race between Sadiq Khan and the Conservative candidate, Susan Hall. And the choice couldn’t be starker.”

Ms Benita then compared the poll next month to huge ballots in 2016. She wrote: “Some are saying the Tory candidate doesn’t stand a chance. This reminds me of what they said about Donald Trump before he was elected, and about Brexit before the EU referendum. We can’t make that mistake again.”

The election is ‘on a knife-edge’, Ms Benita also wrote, due to Londoners needing photo ID to vote. Mr Khan has warned that as many as 900,000 electors could be turned away as a result.

‘I’ve not always agreed with Sadiq’

Ms Benita added: “That’s why I’ve made the tough decision to go public with this direct appeal to Lib Dem voters to lend Sadiq their vote. I’ve not always agreed with Sadiq. But I believe he has the right priorities for London – from helping Londoners through the cost-of-living crisis, tackling crime and the causes of crime, building more council homes and pushing through police reform, to reducing homelessness and taking world-leading climate action.”

She said that she wouldn’t have ‘put her head above the parapet’ by encouraging people not to vote for the Lib Dems unless she were ‘seriously worried’.

It comes a day after Ms Hall promised to make sure 1,500 new Metropolitan Police officers would be recruited if she were elected. The Tory candidate also criticised Mr Khan over police station closures, which have left residents ‘at the mercy of criminals’.

The former hairdresser owner has also slammed the mayor over his record on housing, and has promised to scrap the ULEZ expansion ‘on day one’.

Read our exclusive sit-down interview with Sadiq Khan ahead of the London mayoral election here. Read our full chat with Susan Hall here.

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