The day before it’s due to take place, I get a phone call from one of Sadiq Khan’s aides saying that his security detail has approved Caffè Tropea as the location for our interview. I head to the buzzy Italian eatery in Russell Square the following lunchtime and can see why: the building is glazed on all sides, which presumably makes it easier for them to spot potential threats. Khan’s had round-the-clock police protection since 2017 after receiving a barrage of abuse and death threats so vile that the staff dealing with his communications had to be offered counselling.
‘It’s still that bad, then?’ I ask the aide when I arrive. They have to take recent threats seriously, he says. ‘Especially since the anti-ULEZ protests.’ The potential extension of London’s ultra-low emissions zone (due to happen in August) — on the surface a fairly straightforward ‘save the planet, save lives’ kind of policy — has sparked a bitter culture war that has led to renewed threats on the Mayor. At the end of March anti-ULEZ protesters carrying a makeshift coffin and a placard showing a swastika and a picture of Khan turned up at a People’s Question Time event in Ealing that he was speaking at. The Mayor then faced a significant backlash when he pointed out that protesters with legitimate concerns over the ULEZ expansion risked aligning themselves with the ‘far-Right… Covid deniers… vaccine deniers’.
