Sadiq Khan is very selective when it comes to protests. He was more than happy to have thousands of people on the streets to protest against Brexit and Donald Trump, and he also voiced his support for BLM protesters mid-pandemic. However, whenever he is faced by Londoners who want to express dissatisfaction with his own policies - he makes a swift exit.
Khan was launching his re-election campaign on Thursday when half a dozen north London residents caught wind of his presence in their neighbourhood and went down to have a word with him. Rather than engage with them, Khan hid in a cafe for an hour and only emerged when it became clear that they weren't going to give up and go home. However, he again refused to even acknowledge them and stomped past them to a waiting Range Rover.
Click below for the video.
The residents spoke to Evening Standard reporter Ross Lydall after Khan fled and expressed their disappointment with his attitude (watch below).
Criticism of an LTN scheme in Enfield recently sparked a row in which council leader Nesil Caliskan called the police on her Tory opponents citing use of the word 'regime' as a 'hate crime'. It seems that Sadiq is not the only Labour figure in London running scared of actual debate.
Thursday's escapade is not the first time Khan has ignored protesters. The former Labour mayor of Islington was so incensed by his refusal to engage with her anti-knife crime campaign that she joined the Conservatives. The main reason for Rakhia Ismail's defection was the fact that Tory mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey went and spoke to her, while Khan cowered inside City Hall.
