Susan Hall was on Wednesday unveiled as the Tory candidate who will challenge Sadiq Khan in next year’s London mayoral elections.Ms Hall, a London Assembly member and former council leader, defeated Moz Hossain KC, a criminal barrister and political novice, in the ballot of about 20,000 London Tory members.The result was announced at the Battle of Britain Bunker in Uxbridge by Tory party chairman Greg Hands in front of MPs and supporters.Ms Hall won by securing 57 per cent of the votes cast to 43 per cent for Mr Hossain. The precise number of votes cast was not disclosed. She vowed to “do whatever it takes to win” and received a huge round of applause when she vowed to stop the Ulez expansion “on day one” if she becomes mayor.
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00:00 What kind of conservative are you?
00:02 Tell us a bit about your political history,
00:04 when you got involved in the party, what motivated
00:07 you to become a politician?
00:09 I don't know what sort of conservative I am.
00:13 I just know I am.
00:15 I was motivated.
00:17 I used to have political conversations with my father.
00:21 He was one of 13.
00:23 And he believed that if you worked really, really hard,
00:26 you could drag yourself up in those days out of poverty
00:30 and provide for your family.
00:31 And that's just what he did.
00:34 And he always taught me, work hard.
00:36 You can do anything.
00:38 You can learn by mistakes.
00:40 And you can improve yourself.
00:44 And it was his conservatism that I loved.
00:47 And going back in days, you had real characters in politics.
00:52 You didn't always agree with them.
00:53 Tony Bennet, for an example.
00:55 But they were proper characters.
00:57 They weren't worried about what they were saying the whole time.
01:00 The problem these days is that politicians
01:02 are so hamstrung by what they can and can't say,
01:05 then you're nervous because somebody
01:06 will take it the wrong way.
01:08 And you're losing any characters out of politics.
01:12 And I wish we could take it back there.
01:14 Tell us about your professional career
01:16 before you became a politician.
01:19 Well, when-- Dad was dying when I was doing my A-levels.
01:24 And I should have gone back and taken that first year again.
01:29 I didn't.
01:30 I then did the second year.
01:33 So I did the A-levels, but I didn't pass them.
01:36 So I left at 18.
01:38 And my father had always taught me to strip down engines.
01:41 And my father, he started a garage.
01:45 That was his business.
01:48 So I thought, right, I'll go and work
01:50 in the garage, which I actually really loved.
01:52 Although at that time, women didn't often do that.
01:55 But I loved it.
01:57 I look under a bonnet now, and oh, my goodness,
02:00 you need to be an electrician so I'd leave it well alone.
02:03 Anyway, so I really enjoyed that.
02:05 And then I went--
02:07 and then I got married to a hairdresser
02:09 who decided that he'd love his own business, which was fine.
02:12 I hadn't run a business before.
02:14 He, by his own admission, would never
02:16 go near books or anything.
02:18 So I learned how to do wages and run the business.
02:22 And I was still working in the garage at the time.
02:25 But then I decided I'd move over,
02:27 learn quite a bit of the hairdressing,
02:30 as well as running the business.
02:32 So I then did that.
02:33 So I'm not a typical Tory in that respect.
02:37 It's not Oxford all the way, et cetera.
02:39 I do believe--
02:40 I genuinely believe I can beat Sadiq Khan.
02:43 I would certainly put a lot more effort into doing the job
02:45 than he is putting in at the moment.
02:48 We're kings of City Hall.
02:50 And I understand how councils work,
02:51 which, of course, is important.
02:53 Do you think the ULEZ expansion policy
02:55 could be the policy that actually loses Sadiq Khan
02:59 the 2024 mayoral election?
03:02 I think his attitude towards London
03:05 should be what makes him lose the election, quite frankly.
03:09 The way he flip-flops on policing is a disgrace.
03:13 We all need to feel safe.
03:14 Every single Londoner out there.
03:16 Certainly, his attitude to the ULEZ, the expanded ULEZ,
03:21 is nothing but disgraceful.
03:23 He just dismisses what people think altogether.
03:27 And people aren't being NIMBY.
03:28 They're not being anything else.
03:30 They cannot afford a new car.
03:32 And some people are thinking, how am I going to get to work?
03:35 Because if you're a nurse on night shifts
03:38 and you can't get the transport--
03:39 because transport in and out of London
03:41 is so different, public transport, to inner London.
03:44 They're thinking, how on earth am I going to get to work?
03:47 How will I feed my kids?
03:49 He doesn't see-- this hasn't registered with him.
03:51 And it's not good enough, because a mayor
03:53 has to listen to everybody.