Shaun Bailey
(Picture: PA Archive)Shaun Bailey’s resignation from the London Assembly must be “an inevitability” following his role in the partygate scandal, Sadiq Khan has said.
The Conservative Assembly Member, who stood against Sadiq Khan in the London mayoral election last May, has already stepped down from his roles as chair of two key Assembly committees following revelations he attended a party at Conservative HQ during lockdown in December 2020.
But speaking at the first meeting at the new City Hall building in Newham on Thursday, Sadiq Khan said that “Londoners deserve better representatives than that” and called on Mr Bailey to resign.
Mr Khan said: “We’ve heard mealy-mouthed apologies from those who have been caught out. We might ask why these are only forthcoming when the photos or emails appear in the papers. The Assembly Member pictured at a party on 14 December 2020 stood down as chair of the policing and crime committee on 14 December 2021, exactly a year later, and only when his picture appeared in a national newspaper.
“It’s worth reflecting on this. He continued to chair the committee responsible for scrutinising the work of the Metropolitan Police for a full year after he’d broken a law established to protect us against a deadly pandemic. We’ve now seen him step down as chair of the economy committee and, up until today, vanish from this chamber. His resignation as an Assembly Member must surely now be an inevitability. Londoners deserve much better representatives than that.”
Mr Bailey, who on Thursday attended his first London Assembly meeting since December 15, did not offer any response to the Mayor of London’s comments.
There is now growing pressure from within the London Assembly for Mr Bailey to step down, with Green Party Assembly Member Caroline Russell also calling for him to hold himself to account.
She said: “In the midst of all this mess, it would be good if at least someone were to hold themselves to account in a way that is consistent with at least one of the Nolan principles of public life, and that for this to be a member of the Assembly would do us all credit.”
Labour’s Len Duvall further added to the pressure when he said that Mr Bailey “seems to have apologised to Boris Johnson – I’m not sure what for – for being caught, he even apologised to his mum on national TV, but he needs to apologise to Londoners and he needs to apologise to his colleagues on this Assembly”.
He added that Mr Bailey “needs to apologise to his colleagues in the Conservative group who have tried to uphold the rules of the law”.
Mr Bailey again offered no response, though Assembly chair Andrew Boff reminded members that the purpose of the meeting was to hold the Mayor of London to account and put questions to him.
