London mayor calls on Shaun Bailey to resign all his positions

Shaun Bailey pictured in the midst of a party at Conservative HQ during lockdown

The mayor of London has called on assembly member Shaun Bailey to resign entirely after it emerged Mr Bailey attended parties during the 2020 December lockdown.

The Conservative, who finished second after Sadiq Khan in the London mayoral election in May, has already left his roles as chair of two key committees.

Mr Khan said apologies offered by Mr Bailey were "mealy-mouthed" and were made "because he was caught out".

"Londoners deserve better," he said.

Mr Bailey, who attended his first assembly meeting since mid-December earlier, did not respond, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Speaking of the apologies, Mr Khan said: "We might ask why these are only forthcoming when the photos or emails appear in the papers. The assembly member pictured at a party on 14 December 2020 stood down as chair of the policing and crime committee on 14 December 2021, exactly a year later, and only when his picture appeared in a national newspaper.

"It's worth reflecting on this. He continued to chair the committee responsible for scrutinising the work of the Metropolitan Police for a full year after he'd broken a law established to protect us against a deadly pandemic. We've now seen him step down as chair of the economy committee and, up until today, vanish from this chamber.

"His resignation as an assembly member must surely now be an inevitability. Londoners deserve much better representatives than that."

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There is now growing pressure from within the London Assembly for Mr Bailey to step down, with Green Party member Caroline Russell also calling for him to hold himself to account.

She said: "In the midst of all this mess, it would be good if at least someone were to hold themselves to account in a way that is consistent with at least one of the Nolan principles of public life, and that for this to be a member of the assembly would do us all credit."

Labour's Len Duvall further added to the pressure when he said that Mr Bailey "seems to have apologised to Boris Johnson - I'm not sure what for - for being caught; he even apologised to his mum on national TV, but he needs to apologise to Londoners and he needs to apologise to his colleagues on this assembly".

He added that Mr Bailey "needs to apologise to his colleagues in the Conservative group who have tried to uphold the rules of the law".

Mr Bailey again offered no response, though assembly chair Andrew Boff reminded members that the purpose of the meeting was to hold the mayor of London to account and put questions to him.