Sadiq Khan has responded after a complaint was raised over his failure to correctly declare his receipt of Taylor Swift tickets by dismissing it as politically motivated.
Susan Hall, who stood as the Tory mayoral candidate against Mr Khan earlier this year, submitted an urgent request to City Hall’s monitoring officer on Tuesday to investigate what she called “a potential breach” of the mayoralty’s gift and hospitality rules.
The Labour mayor accepted six free tickets – each worth £500 – for the global megastar’s concert at Wembley Stadium on 15 August.
But it emerged last week that 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 each 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 (GLA).
Responding to Ms Hall requesting an investigation into the incident, Mr Khan told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “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.”
The mayor’s spokesman said this week: “Any gift accepted by the mayor is declared openly and transparently. In this case there was an administrative error. This has been corrected.”
Ms Hall, who serves on the London Assembly, said in her letter to monitoring officer Rory McKenna that it was important to establish whether a “technical or system fault” could have “legitimately” delayed Mr Khan’s declaration.
Alternatively, if there was “no legitimate reason” preventing the tickets being registered on time, she asked: “What steps will you be taking to ensure this potential contravention of the GLA’s Gifts and Hospitality Policy and Procedure is appropriately addressed?”
She 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.”
