London Mayoral election: Former banker Brian Rose to stand

Brian Rose told the BBC he was compelled to run because "it's very hard for me to watch the city I love just spiral further down"

A banker-turned-broadcaster has announced he will be standing in the 2024 London mayoral elections as a candidate for his own party London Real.

Brian Rose told the BBC he was compelled to run because "it's very hard for me to watch the city I love just spiral further down".

He previously stood in the 2021 mayoral election and finished seventh.

The mayoral elections will take place on 2 May.

Mr Rose, who is originally from America but has lived in London for the past two decades, describes himself as a "proud Brit with an American accent".

If elected, he said he would focus primarily on improving crime rates.

"Crime is skyrocketing in this city - there are stabbings, murders and thefts happening all the time and we need to put a stop to it because it is turning London into a laughing stock.

"I live in Shoreditch and the police station nearest to me has now been closed, I don't understand why we are closing stations when crime is rising," he said.

Similar to a number of other candidates he said he would entirely scrap the Ultra Low Emission Zone scheme.

He told the BBC Transport for London was "being run into the ground" and so he had plans to privatise the transport company "which I know is a big project but would solve a lot of problems".

Mr Rose, who started his career in banking and later founded the media firm London Real, said he wanted to give greater freedoms to financial institutions, including relaxing rules around investing in cryptocurrency and blockchain.

"I'm a pro crypto person," he added.

Who are the mayoral candidates?

Eleven other people have put themselves forward c as candidates for the London mayoral elections. They are:

• Shyam Batra, independent

• Count Binface, independent

• Rob Blackie, Liberal Democrats

• Natalie Campbell, independent

• Howard Cox, Reform UK

• Amy Gallagher, SDP

• Zoe Garbett, Green Party

• Tarun Ghulati, independent

• Susan Hall, Conservative Party

• Sadiq Khan, Labour Party

• Andreas Michli, independent

Mr Rose said he believed people should vote for him because he "brings a fresh perspective with my business background".

"London has been descending into chaos and that's what everyone I speak to on the streets tells me," he said.

"I don't need this job, I am running because I love the city and want it to be the envy of the world again."

He added that he planned to get more votes in this election compared with 2021 as he had "learnt a lot about the city over the past four years" and believed there was a point where the two-party system would "break".

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