Luisa Porrit Launches London Mayoral Campaign - Our Plan to Take London Forward
London Liberal Democrats mayoral candidate Luisa Porritt has launched her campaign, setting out her vision to Take London Forward.
Luisa, a former MEP and current Camden councillor, shared her plans for jobs, homes and clean air.
Speaking in her local pub the Haverstock Tavern in a launch live-streamed on Facebook, Luisa highlighted how the pandemic will change London, and why it is time to seize the moment for positive change.
She said: "Jobs. Homes. Clean Air. Those are three basic needs - and we're being let down on all three. My plan to Take London Forward will give Londoners what they need.
"Our city has changed radically in the last year, and with big change comes big opportunity.
"With the right leadership, I know we can take London forward."
Luisa announced she would create a London Housing Company, with office space abandoned as . She explained: "No more desperate deals with developers or selling off public land for somebody else's benefit.
"The London Housing Company will take control of building the homes we need directly by bringing empty properties back into use, maximising use of public land, driving forward the Affordable Homes Programme, raising revenue to build sites of its own and shaping the future of London's housing market - hands on."
Luisa also criticised the "utterly shameful" response of the Metropolitan Police in their handling of the vigil for murdered Sarah Everard. She said: "The Metropolitan Police had the opportunity to do the right thing. They could have found a way for the vigil to go ahead safely, and that's what I urged Cressida Dick to do.
"But we were denied this basic right. The right to voice our collective grief, pain and anger. The right to challenge people in positions of power. The right to protest.
"London is a liberal city. So it's no wonder that defiant women stayed true to their liberal values and decided to attend the vigil anyway.
"The police response was utterly shameful. From start to finish, the Met Police got it horribly wrong and that's why the Commissioner must go."
Policy highlights:
Introducing Luisa, Liberal Democrat Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon criticised the records of Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan and Tory candidate Shaun Bailey.
She said: "It's time for a new challenger to Sadiq Khan. I have worked closely with him for five years and he simply does not deliver. Whether it's affordable homes or green transport, he shirks responsibility. He doesn't really have that vision and that passion that's needed - and he doesn't know how to work with other parties, with Government and with councils.
"But I've also worked alongside Shaun Bailey. And he certainly is not the right person to represent Londoners. Out of touch with cheap tricks and crass comments, he and the Tories do not understand the diverse, open and European London that we all love.
"I know Luisa well as a campaigner, a councillor, a former Member of the European Parliament for London. But I also know her as a Londoner, a friend and someone who represents the future of our city if we choose a future which is innovative and internationalist. A future which is green and affordable. And a future with the next generation of leadership to Take London Forward."
To find out more information go to luisa4london.co.uk