Mayor Sadiq Khan’s battle with Sir Keir Starmer shows no sign of slowing down. In a new interview, Khan says he’s “frustrated” that other politicians are not talking about Brexit, in a barb that some in the Labour leader’s office may take personally.
Last week, despite making large gains, Labour failed to win a by-election in Uxbridge. Sir Keir and others blamed the loss on Khan’s Ulez expansion next month, which aims to make London’s air cleaner by taxing polluting cars. It was briefed yesterday Khan would now “rethink” the policy.
Ulez isn’t the only policy Starmer and Khan are likely to clash on. In a new piece in the New York Times which wonders why so many in UK politics are ignoring the effects of Brexit, Khan told the paper there is an “omertà” around the subject. “It’s the elephant in the room,” he said. “I’m frustrated that no one’s talking about it.” The piece says Khan is “one of the few Labour Party leaders eager to discuss the consequences of leaving the EU”. Starmer was a remainer, but is now quieter on the subject as he hopes to win back Tory voters.
Khan also did two very positive interviews about Ulez with Prospect and Perspective magazines this month. In the latter, he talks about how being mayor means he is free to speak his mind. “The job of being mayor means you can be yourself,” he said. Sir Keir may be wishing he wasn’t.
Winehouse biopic crew go back to black
Having shut down large parts of Camden earlier this year, the Amy Winehouse biopic has now wrapped filming in New York. And Winehouse’s former producer, Mark Ronson, has revealed how the cast, including star Marisa Abela came to the studio where she wrote some of her big hits on their last day. “The studio I’m in right now is where we wrote Back to Black and did all the demos,” Ronson told Vulture. “I think it was a nice sort of closing the circle for them on the last day of filming... seeing where Amy actually did this stuff.” Ronson has read the script, and says it captures Amy’s “sharp and cutting” humour and “nailed a lot of her deadpan”. This week marks 12 years since the death of the singer. Ronson’s latest job was on the Barbie film soundtrack.
Barbican gets City of London cash
As a number of public bodies like Arts Council England flee from funding the arts in London, leaving institutions like the English National Opera in the lurch, the suits of the City of London are stepping up. The Barbican Centre, beloved by some for its striking design and maligned by others as an eyesore, has just received a £25m bung from the City of London Corporation as part of an ongoing renovation project. Plans include making the place greener, and using more of it as arts space. Barbican chief exec Claire Spencer says the cash will be used “to conserve the extraordinary architectural heritage of the Barbican, while reconsidering what an arts centre can and should be in the 21st century”. A Bloomberg wing?
Jack lives it up like Gatsby before becoming a dad
Comedian Jack Whitehall, soon to be a dad for the first time, got his glad rags on for a lavish party at Windsor’s Cliveden House at the weekend. Video game mogul Paul Wedgwood, styled himself ‘Batsby’, after the Great Gatsby, and hosted guests such as Joshua Kane and his wife Lottie Archer-Kane, and model Martha Liversedge. There were burlesque dancers and attendees were given a “hangover package” to help them recover the next day. Back in London, actor Micheal Ward and musician Dynamo went to an exclusive Watchers Party hosted by mixed martial artist Michael Venom Page.
