The City Hall watchdog has been asked to open an urgent investigation into Sadiq Khan’s free tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.
Mr Khan accepted six free tickets – each worth £500 – for the pop megastar’s concert at Wembley stadium on August 15.
But he was 10 days late in declaring the gift on the City Hall register of gifts and hospitality.
In addition, his original entry incorrectly said the tickets were worth £194, not £500, and that they had been gifted by the Football Association rather than LS Events, which is an events contractor to the Greater London Authority.
Mr Khan’s spokesman said the initial error was due to human error and had been rectified.
But Susan Hall, a Conservative member of the London Assembly and the defeated 2024 Tory mayoral candidate, has asked the GLA’s monitoring officer Rory McKenna to investigate.
Mr Khan told The Standard on Tuesday: "I've lost count of the number of times Conservatives have made complaints against me. We'll be co-operating fully with the monitoring officer."
On Monday, The Standard revealed that Mr Khan and City Hall aides had been gifted a total of 22 tickets – almost twice as many as first thought - for Swift’s Era tour concerts at Wembley in June and August.
Mr Khan was invited to two concerts, one in June and one in August, but only attended the latter, when he was accompanied by unnamed family members and other people, apparently in a private box occupied by 11 people including the mayor.
Ms Hall, in a letter to Mr McKenna that was sent on Monday night, said she wanted to make a “formal complaint about a potential breach of the GLA’s Gifts and Hospitality Policy” by Mr Khan.
She said Mr Khan should have registered the tickets within 28 days – namely, September 12.
“It is my understanding that Sadiq Khan did not register a declaration for the gifted tickets until 22 September 2024, thereby contravening the GLA’s Gifts and Hospitality Policy and Procedure,” she wrote.
“It is now being reported by the BBC that the Mayor’s declaration significantly under-stated the value of the tickets, which were £3,000 not £1,164, and contained wrong information about who had donated them.
“Furthermore, the tickets for the August concert were reportedly paid for by a company who have previously worked on events with City Hall.”
She asked Mr McKenna whether a “technical or system fault” could have delayed Mr Khan’s declaration.
Alternatively, if there was “no legitimate reason” preventing the tickets being registered on time, “what steps will you be taking to ensure this potential contravention of the GLA’s Gifts and Hospitality Policy and Procedure is appropriately addressed?”
Ms Hall, who is the Tory spokeswoman on policing and crime, added: “Can you clarify the GLA rules regarding the receipt and declaration of hospitality donations from external suppliers and contractors for the Mayor of London and staff?
“Considering the public interest in this matter, I’d appreciate it if you could expedite an investigation into this affair.”
A spokesperson for the Mayor said: “Any gift accepted by the mayor is declared openly and transparently. In this case there was an administrative error. This has been corrected.”
Of the 22 tickets, 10 of the recipients are unknown. This is because they were either members of Mr Khan’s family or were junior City Hall staff, whose gifts declarations do not have to be made public.
City Hall staff below the rank of assistant director level do not have to publicly declare gifts.
