Sir Sadiq Khan has denied there was a conflict of interest when he accepted free tickets to watch Taylor Swift, despite the fact they were given to him by an events company which has been awarded almost £45m in City Hall contracts.
The Londoner on Wednesday reported that LS Events – which gifted the mayor six tickets to the coveted show at Wembley Stadium last summer – has received some £44.7m from City Hall over the last three years, most of which was for a major contract to oversee the Queen’s funeral.
The company has also been awarded a share of about £16m worth of future contracts, though the Londoner was unable to verify the size of that share.
Sir Sadiq told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) he was “not in charge of procurement decisions”, implying that it wouldn’t have been possible for him to give the company any unfair advantage in exchange for the tickets – which were together worth about £3,000.
A spokesperson for LS Events told the Londoner that the practice of giving tickets was “commonplace” and stressed that in all its work to win contracts for City Hall it was subject to “the rigorous contracting and procurement requirements each of them entails”.
LS Events’ work for the GLA includes the “planning and delivery of Operation London Bridge” – the code name for the Queen’s funeral – in September 2022, as well as events linked to the 2024 Champions League Final 2024, the Euro 2024 final, St Patrick’s Day 2024 and 2025 and Diwali on the Square 2024 and 2025.
The majority of the funding received by LS Events from City Hall was for its planning and delivery of Operation London Bridge.
The work involved a “significant period of planning and 12 days of delivery”, City Hall said. The cost of the contract was covered by a Government grant.
City Hall’s monitoring officer Rory McKenna is currently examining whether Sir Sadiq “exercised an appropriate level of caution” in deciding to accept the Taylor Swift tickets.
However, Mr McKenna decided earlier this month not to pursue the other three of four allegations made by Tory assembly member Susan Hall in relation to the tickets.
Responding to the Londoner’s article, the mayor told the LDRS: “The Conservatives have made various complaints to the monitoring officer about me – I think three quarters have been kicked out in the first instance as not even being worthy of investigation.
“There is an investigation being undertaken [into the remaining element of the complaint].
“I’m quite clear: I’m somebody who follows the rules, makes declarations. But I’m also somebody who is unashamedly pro-London. I will not hesitate to bang the drum for our city.
“I’m not in charge of procurement decisions for obvious reasons. It’s really important that those who are in charge of procurement decisions follow the rules as well.”
The Londoner also quotes George Havenhand, a researcher at the charity Spotlight on Corruption, saying: “The scale of the largesse provided to the mayor and City Hall staff — and wider culture of accepting hospitality and gifts — raises serious questions about what is expected in return”.
Mr Havenhand called on City Hall to “create a presumption against accepting gifts and hospitality unless there is a good public interest reason for doing so.”
Responding to that suggestion, Sir Sadiq said: “These are the same rules that applied under the previous two mayors, so I will carry on following the rules.”
