A man was given a penalty notice by police and faces possible arrest for directing potentially threatening remarks at Sadiq Khan during a rowdy public meeting at City Hall.
Anti-Ulez protesters frequently disrupted the People’s Question Time event last night at which the mayor and members of the London Assembly face questions from the public.
The event was moved from a venue in Westminster to City Hall, in the Royal Docks, for security reasons. Mr Khan and 16 assembly members sat behind a protective glass screen in the City Hall chamber.
Security staff repeatedly warned a small group of protesters they would be evicted after repeated shouts disrupted Mr Khan.
There were chants of “Get Khan out” and many audience members complained angrily that the mayor failed to answer their questions. One man was forcibly removed from the building after the meeting ended.
The Met police said that a 50-year-old man was given a penalty notice for disorder (PND), which carry a penalty of up to £80, after he stuck an offensive sticker on a glass window “causing harassment, alarm and distress” as he left City Hall. He was escorted from the building by police.
Officers are understood to be reviewing footage of the man allegedly shouting at Mr Khan: “400 years ago you’d be sent to the gallows”. It was initially thought that he had shouted “send him to the gallows”, leading to the mistaken belief that he had been arrested for threatening the mayor.
During the event, a Tory councillor in Harrow, Matthew Goodwin-Freeman, an ally of Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall, called on Mr Khan to “resign” and held up an Evening Standard front page featuring a picture of Ms Hall and the headline: “I can beat Khan."
Tory assembly member Tony Devenish, who was hosting the event, said it was “unfortunate” that it had to be held in City Hall rather than central London.
He said he hoped the next People’s Question Time – the last before the mayoral election – would be held in Richmond.
Mr Khan was jeered when he said the Ulez, which was expanded across Greater London on August 29, meant that “all nine million Londoners are breathing cleaner air”.
A study published by Transport for London last week found that the number of non-compliant vehicles had fallen by 77,000 a day in the first month of the expansion but said it would take up to a year to establish whether air pollution had been improved.
Ms Hall said drivers had paid £52m in Ulez fines and levies in the last two months. She sparked applause when she said: “I think the Ulez expansion is an absolute disgrace.”
Mr Khan claimed London was doing better at tackling crime than the rest of England and Wales. Audience members shouted: “You live in a fantasy world”, “absolute crap”, “you need to wake up, mate” and “it’s alright sitting in your [police] Range Rover getting chauffeured around”.
Mr Khan also used the meeting to criticise Home Secretary Suella Braverman for her criticism of the Met police and said he was “deeply affected by the conflict in the Middle East”.
With an eye on a third term as mayor, he said: “I promise that I will continue working flat out to build a safer, greener and fairer city.”
