Rory Stewart today claimed that London was “creaking” from years of underinvestment as he called on the public to suggest ideas for his mayoral manifesto.
The former Tory Cabinet minister, who is running as an independent, is dispatching hundreds of volunteers to knock on doors to ask Londoners how to improve the capital.
More than 5,000 people have registered to help his bid to unseat Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan next May. A rally on Saturday in King’s Cross is expected to draw hundreds as the next stage of his “LondonSpeaks” campaign launches.
Mr Stewart has been touring London on foot to gather views. A poll last week found he had the support of 13 per cent of Londoners, leapfrogging the Lib Dem and Green candidates into third place. Mr Khan increased his lead on a May poll to 45 per cent.
Mr Stewart said: “Things are beginning to creak — in fact, I’d go further than that: things are beginning to go wrong. The most obvious example is safety. The city is just not safe enough. Violent crime is higher than it was five years ago.”
He said “you get a sense in a hundred smaller things of a city creaking”, from potholes in school playgrounds and inadequate recycling to a lack of trees and missed opportunities for affordable housing.
Mr Stewart said: “What we will be doing between now and Christmas is getting out to doorsteps, listening, asking you exactly what you would change in your neighbourhood next week.
“What have you seen in London that’s fantastic that you could apply to other parts of this great city? Through listening, through giving a voice to millions of people, we can together make this city much, much better.”
