Sadiq Khan: Mayor accused as London question event moved online

People's Question Time is held twice a year, when the mayor and assembly members are quizzed about various issues

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been accused of "running scared of scrutiny" over the decision to move a public question time event online to avoid protest and disruption.

The next People's Question Time (PQT) on 29 February - just nine weeks before the mayoral election - will not have an in-person audience.

The Tories said it sent a "damaging signal" about community engagement.

City Hall said some behaviour at the last PQT in November was "threatening".

It claimed that the safety of participants had been put at risk.

At the event, the mayor was heckled on several occasions by audience members mainly opposed to expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez).

Some people were threatened with removal if they continued heckling, but were not removed. Nearly all filed out of the chamber quietly at the end as the mayor talked to a number of people he had invited to the meeting.

'Dodging Londoners' questions'

A spokesman for the Greater London Authority said: "Unacceptable behaviour at the last PQT meeting disrupted the event and put the safety of all those attending and staffing the event at risk.

"People's Question Time is a key opportunity for Londoners to engage directly with the mayor and London Assembly members to discuss the issues they care about, in a safe environment.

"The decision has therefore been taken to host February's PQT online, allowing the event to go ahead safely so that Londoners can pose their questions to the mayor and assembly members."

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The leader of the Conservative group on the London Assembly, Neil Garratt, said the mayor was hiding from the public.

"Sadiq Khan is running scared of scrutiny. Twice in January he announced policies straight after London Assembly meetings because he knew his half-baked plans would not stand up to our questioning," he said.

"Now he's dodging Londoners' questions as well, banning the people from People's Question Time so he can hide online.

"Every other mayor has attended People's Question Time in person. Sadiq Khan is afraid to face Londoners and he's afraid to face scrutiny."

PQT is held twice a year, when the mayor and assembly members are quizzed about issues like transport, policing and housing.

At an event in Ealing in March, sections of the audience shouted angrily at the mayor over Ulez at several points.

November's event was originally due to be staged in Westminster, but was moved to City Hall, apparently on police advice - although Scotland Yard has said it will not discuss security arrangements.

City Hall has tight security and a smaller capacity, and there is a glass screen separating the mayor from the audience.

According to assembly members, police advice has not been given as a reason for moving the latest event online.

Andrew Boff, Tory chair of the London Assembly, said Londoners had been able to attend this event "twice yearly for the past 24 years" and the Assembly "has a clear view that it should continue in its current form until a proper review can take place".

"The mayor's unilateral decision to scrap the in-person People's Question Time planned for Richmond in February goes against the Assembly's representations that to go online now, at the very end of this term, would send a damaging signal to our constituents about our commitment to direct engagement.

"Our preference is for an in-person People's Question Time in Richmond, with the local constituency member in the chair."

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