Susan Hall wins Tory mayoral race

The Tories now have their candidate to take on Sadiq Khan next May. Susan Hall, the right wing member of the Greater London Authority, has today defeated Moz Hossain by 57 per cent to 43 per cent in a ballot of Conservative members across the capital.

Hall, who led the GLA Tories for six years, was initially seen as an outside shot for the candidacy back in May. But she impressed the party board in London to make the final three. After Dan Korski dropped out following an accusation (which he denies) of groping, members were faced with a choice of either her or an electoral novice in Hossain. Her strategy for the nomination was based on winning councillors’ endorsements and running a punchy, pugilistic campaign against Khan. ‘The one he fears’ was their tagline, based off the duo’s exchanges at City Hall.

Labour has been quick off the mark to try to paint Hall as a hard-right extremist. ‘She doesn’t stand up for women and she hates London’s diversity’ was the reaction from a Labour spokesman to her victory today.

Hall’s selection over Hossain – an immigrant himself – could mean that identity figures more in this race than in 2021. Sadiq Khan’s team will seek to portray her as antithetical to the image of London as an outward-looking, liberal city. The staunch Brexiteer has never been shy about her views, which include support for the Rwanda scheme and the Truss mini-Budget. Just as Hall’s campaign will try to make the contest a plebiscite on Khan and Ulez, so too will Khan’s supporters seek to make it a referendum on the Conservative record after 13 years in government.

Hall faces an uphill battle in these next ten months. Labour is consistently ahead by between 15 to 20 points in the national polls; its lead in London is even greater. In the short term, Hall’s challenge will be to pivot away from appealing to the membership to instead pitching herself to all Londoners, especially those who are disaffected with the national party. This will likely involve making much of her ‘blue collar’ background as a mechanic and small businesswoman and campaigning on the key issues of crime, Khan and Ulez. The electoral potency of the last of these could be demonstrated as early as Friday morning when we get the results of the Uxbridge by-election and find out if Ulez opposition is actually a vote-winner for the Tories.