There are a record number of candidates running to be the next Mayor of London, it emerged today.
Some 20 candidates have thrown their hats into the ring in a bid to take over from current Mayor, Sadiq Khan.
This year’s race features a number of colourful characters including the scion of an acting dynasty, a former public schoolboy YouTuber who printed his CV on top of a car to get a job at the BBC and an ‘independent space warrior’ named Count Binface.
Londoners will head to the polls on 6 May to elect their next mayor, after last year’s election was postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Sadiq Khan faces competition in his bid for re-election from Tory candidate Shaun Bailey and actor Laurence Fox, who this week launched a drive-by heckle as he boarded a ‘Free London’ branded battle bus before riding to a campaign event the Mayor was holding nearby.
Also in the running is Piers Corbyn, the conspiracy theorist brother of former Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
Some 20 candidates have thrown their hats into the ring in a bid to take over from current Mayor, Sadiq Khan
Shaun Bailey, the Conservative candidate running for Mayor of London
Actor Laurence Fox, who this week launched a drive-by heckle as he boarded a ‘Free London’ branded battle bus
Independent candidate Farah London, who decribes herself as a ‘visionary entrepreneur, with over 22 years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience’
Max Fosh (pictured), 25, who boasts 375,000 subscribers on YouTube, has revealed he is running in the Mayor of London elections ‘just to get more votes than Laurence Fox’
Left, Piers Corbyn and right, Count Binface – Count Binface for Mayor of London
An Opinium/Evening Standard poll last week showed Mr Khan had 53 per cent of the vote, and a 25-point lead over Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey.
This puts the mayor on track to produce the largest ever landslide victory for a London mayor election.
Lib-Dem candidate Luisa Porritt and the Green’s Sian Berry each received 7 per cent, ahead of UKIP’s Peter Gammons on 2 per cent and Women’s Equality Party candidate Mandu Reid on 1 per cent.
Speaking at a campaign event in Westminster this week, Mr Khan said his focus would be on ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ if he was re-elected for a second term in the delayed elections on May 6.
He set out plans for a £32 million fund to establish four new skills academies to train Londoners for work in growth areas in the creative, digital, low carbon and health and social care sectors.
Meanwhile the actor Laurence Fox launched his bid to become the capital’s mayor as leader of the new Reclaim Party with an attack on ‘authoritarian’ politicians who had turned the city into a ‘ghost town’.
He said that Mr Khan was ‘indistinguishable’ from his Conservative rival Shaun Bailey.
And ex-public schoolboy YouTuber Max Fosh, 25, who boasts 375,000 subscribers on YouTube, revealed he was running in the Mayoral elections ‘just to get more votes than Laurence Fox’.
In a YouTube clip posted earlier this month, Mr Fosh held a bundle of documents and a cheque as he explained his name would be on the ballot alongside current mayor Sadiq Khan, Shaun Bailey, Mr Fox and 18 others.
In December, Mr Fosh parked outside the BBC building with his car emblazoned with his CV and a QR code linking to a video pitch.
After sharing the stunt on Twitter, many praised his ‘initiative’, but some users slammed the former Harrow student for the stunt for using his ‘privilege’ to try and get his dream job quickly.
Comedian Jon Harvey is standing as ‘Count Binface’, with manifestos including, ‘Speaker phones on public transport to be banned. Offenders to be forced to watch the movie version of Cats every day for a year.’
Mr Harvey won 249 votes when he stood against Theresa May in 2017 as Lord Buckethead, a character from the 1984 film Gremloids, and he also took on Boris Johnson in the 2019 election.
His other manifestos include, ‘All government ministers’ pay to be tied to that of nurses for the next 100 years’, and, ‘On one day every year, escalators on the Underground to be reversed, encouraging travellers to go up the down escalators and down the up ones, as a free gym and Gladiators simulator all in one.’
Meanwhile Laurence Fox has already been warned by police about ‘breaking Covid rules’ while campaigning to become the next Mayor of London.
The 42-year-old is standing as a candidate for the Reclaim Party that he set up last year to fight the ‘culture wars’ taking place in Britain.
Vanessa Hudson, Animal Welfare Party and Kam Balayev of Renew
Laurence Fox told a crowd in Westminster that he wanted to ‘reclaim your freedom’ and promised to ‘unlock London now’ if elected London mayor
Left, Steve Kelleher Social Democratic candidate and right, Richard Hewison (Rejoin EU)
The former actor’s shift to politics came after his 22-year acting career ended with his Question Time appearance last January.
Following the show, he was ‘cancelled’ by many of his acting colleagues for challenging claims that a racist British Press was targeting Meghan Markle.
Launching his campaign to a crowd in Westminster two days ago, Mr Fox said that Mayor Khan ‘Khan’t’ be trusted to lead the capital, and that he was ‘ashamed to be British’.
He then boarded a ‘Free London’ branded battle bus before riding to a campaign event the Mayor was holding nearby.
In a high-pitched voice, Mr Fox shouts: ‘Alright Sadiqi-wiqi! I’m nicking your house, mate!’ as he passes the incumbent mayor.
Mr Fox this week attacked London‘s ‘cathedral of wokery’ as he pledged to erect hundreds more statues of military heroes across London in response to protests to remove the likes of Winston Churchill’s bust last summer.
He also said that he will refuse to take a Covid vaccine until 2023 when monitoring for some of the jabs will be completed.
His campaign for the May elections will be completely funded by a donation from ex-Tory political donor and financier Jeremy Hosking, who is worth £375million.
Mr Fox has promised to ‘unlock London’ in May if elected, and said he would help people to ‘reclaim their freedom’.
Arriving at his campaign launch on a bus daubed with the slogan ‘Free London’, Mr Fox said: ‘I am not a politician. I never wanted to be a politician,’ before quipping that he ‘used’ to be an actor.
‘We are here to reclaim your freedom and we need to unlock London.
‘Someone needs to unlock London now, and I can tell you one thing: Sadiq Khant. And Sadiq Won’t. Sadiq Khan is ashamed to be British.’
An ardent opponent to the national lockdown, he will stand against Sadiq Khan in the mayoral elections to be held on May 6.
He added: ‘Freedom of speech is under threat in the cathedral of wokery that is London.’
Despite polling somewhat behind Mr Khan’s closest rival Shaun Bailey, Mr Fox said he is ‘in it to win it, you don’t get a medal for coming second… you do at school egg and spoon races.’
Mr Fox’s policies have centred mainly around fighting the ‘culture wars’ he says are taking place across the country.
Following attempts to topple several statues in the capital, as well as a debate over Lord Nelson’s place in Trafalgar Square, Mr Fox came out ardently in favour of protecting statues and has since said he would to erect hundreds more.
He added that each hero would get a state in a Park of London Heroes next to Horseguards’ Parade.
Mr Fox has also been a strong opponent to the lockdown and has been criticised for skepticism of vaccines.
Earlier this week, he confirmed that he will refuse the vaccine until after 2023, when he claims clinical trials will be concluded.
Fox is standing as a candidate for the Reclaim Party that he set up last year to fight the ‘culture wars’ taking place in Britain
Mr Khan unveiled his own ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ pledge to spend £32m on employment assistance as part of his re-election campaign