Sadiq Khan was sent a bullet in the mail at the height of the protests against the London-wide expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez).
The mayor and his wife Saadiya also received an “Osman warning” from the security services – they were told their lives were potentially at risk but the police did not have enough evidence to arrest the suspected offender.
The revelations emerged in an updated version of Mr Khan’s political memoir, Breathe, which was published in paperback this week.
Shocking revelation in new paperback edition of @SadiqKhan’s book: he was sent a bullet in the post at the height of the anti-Ulez protests last year. pic.twitter.com/TGioJ1ripz
— Ross Lydall (@RossLydall) July 19, 2024
In a new final chapter, Mr Khan says he didn’t realise “how tough” implementing the Ulez expansion – which went ahead in August last year despite protests - was going to be.
He and his City Hall team then faced “the fight of our lives” in May’s mayoral elections, as other world cities watched to see whether the Ulez was “electorally toxic” and would lead to Mr Khan being ousted from office.
But he secured a “landslide” victory over Tory rival and Ulez opponent Susan Hall, with the second biggest winning margin in the history of the London mayoralty.
Mr Khan wrote: “London truly has sent a message to the world. Talking about the climate and taking bold action is not a political death wish.”
The book was first published in hardback in May 2023, when it revealed his desire to “introduce a new, more comprehensive road-user charging system, to be implemented by the end of the decade at the earliest”.
This plan, to replace the Ulez and congestion charge with a “pay per mile” system, was used by the Tories throughout the mayoral campaign to attack Mr Khan – prompting him to explicitly abandon the pledge in his manifesto.
But the original paragraph has been retained in the paperback edition – though Mr Khan writes in the afterword that because the Ulez expansion had “proved so successful, pay-per-mile was no longer needed”.
The biggest new revelation is the extent of the hostility and threat to his personal safety that Mr Khan and his family faced as a result of the Ulez.
At a People’s Question Time event in Ealing in March 2023, at which Mr Khan sparked anger by saying some anti-Ulez protesters were “joining hands” with the far-Right, he had to remain in the “green room” backstage for some time afterwards on police advice for his own safety, and a decoy car was used to smuggle him from the venue.
Later, the same group of protesters “started showing up outside my home and targeted my wife and daughters,” he writes.
“For several days, a caravan was chained by my home bearing slogans and artwork that included swastikas. A letter came in the mail, addressed to me, with a bullet inside.
“On one occasion, Saadiya and I had been issued with an Osman warning: a serious letter and a briefing in person where there is intelligence of a threat to someone’s life, but not enough evidence to justify the police arresting the possible offender.”
Mr Khan reveals his disappointment at the Labour party’s decision to “disown” the Ulez expansion, midway through the Uxbridge by-election in July last year, which the party’s candidate Danny Beales ended up losing narrowly to the Conservatives.
After the result was declared, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer blamed the forthcoming Ulez expansion for his party’s failure to capture Boris Johnson’s old parliamentary constituency.
Mr Khan does not directly criticise Sir Keir in the book but indirectly makes clear his dismay at the way events unfolded. Mr Beales was subsequently elected in the General Election a fortnight ago.
Referring to the aftermath of the by-election defeat, Mr Khan writes: “I didn’t expect things to be as bad as they had turned out. I knew Keir Starmer… was committed to cleaning up our air, but as the weekend progressed the news continued to report criticism of the policy from some friends and Labour colleagues.
“It was a tough few days, and I’ll always remember those who got in contact to show support, either publicly or privately.”
