Mayor security fears behind question time event going online

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

A rude sticker of mayor Sadiq Khan contributed to the barring of Londoners from attending People's Question Time on Thursday in person, it has emerged.

An anti-Ulez protester was fined at the last event for trying to put up a small sticker showing the mayor with a pair of testicles around his neck.

City Hall said Thursday evening's event had been moved online because attendees of the last one had been put "at risk".

But the fine for the sticker incident was the only one handed out.

Other claims about abuse and intimidation at the last People's Question Time (PQT) event have not been substantiated.

Indeed, the only formal complaint made was about aggressive behaviour by a member of the mayor's own team who was accused of swearing at a disabled woman as she and her partner left the event.

The mayor and London Assembly are required by law to hold two PQT events a year, with the public meetings - a place where people can pose questions to politicians in person - being held for more than two decades.

Only during the Covid-19 pandemic were they held online.

This week's event was due to have been staged in Richmond, south-west London, but last month the mayor decided to make it an online event on the grounds of safety and security.

Leaders of all the political parties at the London Assembly - including Labour - objected to the mayor's plan but were overruled.

The last PQT was held in November at City Hall in east London, which has airport-style security and where a glass screen separates the mayor from the audience. Photo ID was required to get in.

A number of anti-Ulez protesters attended and repeatedly interrupted, heckling the mayor and at points chanting: "Get Khan out."

Security guards threatened to remove people if they continued to heckle, but none were taken out. As audience members left, the mayor was seen chatting to guests and having his picture taken.

But afterwards, City Hall claimed there was racist behaviour and threats to the safety and security of people attending.

In a statement, it said: "The GLA has a responsibility to ensure all those attending our events can do so safely.

"Behaviour at the last PQT meeting raised concerns and prevented some attending from putting their questions to the mayor. It put the security of members of the public attending as well as those staffing the event at risk."

It added that the decision to move the event online had been "informed by City Hall security assessments" to "allow the event to go ahead safely".

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London Assembly members were told by officials there were anecdotal reports of threatening conduct, including of a racist nature, and of staff and audience members feeling unsafe.

But it has emerged that the one cited incident of racial abuse to a staff member happened outside a hotel a few hundred metres from City Hall sometime after the meeting. There was no clear description of the person said to be involved, and it was not clear he had been in the audience earlier.

In a separate incident, a 50-year-old man was given a £20 penalty charge notice under the Public Order Act after being stopped by plain clothes police officers from putting an offensive sticker on a glass window.

'Nothing threatening about it'

Campaign group Action Against Ulez and the War on the Motorist said it had been a small sticker that had showed Mr Khan pictured with testicles below his face.

Spokesman Nick Arlett said: "It's a joke and a caricature, it's nothing. If you are a five-year-old you might find it offensive. There was nothing threatening about it whatsoever.

"They should have just told him to take it down and go away. It's ridiculous that he was issued with a penalty for that."

Meanwhile, the one formal complaint made after the event was about the conduct of one of the mayor's own officials.

Andrew Prentice, from Carshalton, in Surrey, had attended with his partner Clare Watson to protest against the expansion of Ulez to outer London.

Andrew Prentice and Clare Watson attended the last People's Question Time in November

He said that as they left and were chanting at the mayor, they were sworn at by one of his officials, who used an expletive as they told Ms Watson to "shut up".

When Mr Prentice asked for the staff member's name and said he wanted to make a complaint, he was forcibly removed by security guards, while his partner followed in her wheelchair.

The confrontation in the City Hall cafe was filmed on a bystander's phone and has been seen by the BBC.

Mr Prentice made a written complaint and, on Wednesday, three months after the incident, he received a response from the Greater London Authority (GLA) after the body was contacted by the BBC, which said it had not been upheld due to a "lack of substantive evidence".

He still insists he was protesting lawfully and was wrongly treated.

"Clare, especially, was upset at the aggression," he said. "She is disabled and couldn't cause a scene even if she tried.

'Dodge public scrutiny'

"We went to protest peacefully. If we had spoken to staff the way he spoke to us, you can bet your bottom dollar police would have been called and we would have got penalty charge notices."

Mr Prentice added he was "shocked" the mayor was moving the next PQT event online and accused him of being "not willing to face the public so close to the mayoral election", which is nine weeks away on 2 May.

Neil Garratt, who leads the Conservative group on the London Assembly, said there was no reason for Thursday's event not to be held in Richmond.

"The mayor has used minor and unrelated incidents as a pretext to cancel People's Question Time and dodge public scrutiny.

"The London mayor has the largest personal mandate in the country, his decisions have far-reaching impact on Londoners' lives. The law says he must face public questions twice a year," he said.

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