Sadiq Khan says he has been on a journey: from a car lover who once voted in favour of Heathrow’s third runway to a politician who understands how pollution is damaging the health of his fellow Londoners, as well as adding to the climate crisis. Now campaigning for a third term, he has written a book about his green conversion.
He explains how developing adult-onset asthma led to a personal awakening, and how meeting the campaigner Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, whose nine-year-old daughter Ella died from asthma triggered by air pollution, made him determined to clean up London’s toxic air. Yet his environmental plans have not pleased everyone – and the expansion of London’s ultra-low emissions zone is proving particularly controversial.
Nosheen Iqbal hears about why he thinks rent controls could be the answer to London’s housing crisis, and whether he feels the Metropolitan police can be turned around in the wake of Dame Louise Casey’s damning report, which found it to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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