Mayor strolling home

Polls show Londoners are likely to re-elect Sadiq Khan as Mayor, despite many being critical of his eight-year record in office.

Victory would stretch his rule into a second decade and he has his eyes on legacy projects such as making the River Thames safe enough to swim in within 10 years, mirroring an Olympic Games clean-up of the Seine in Paris.

Mr Khan's position is helped by the Conservative Party’s deep unpopularity, meaning its challenger Susan Hall struggles to raise her profile.

The drum she beats is the Mayor’s record on knife crime and a pledge to reverse a low-emission traffic policy that sparked a revolt in London suburbs last year.

A boy, 14, was stabbed near a Tube station two days before polling day. Social media is rife with slurs associating Mr Khan with the incident.

He called the Hainault attack “devastating and appalling” as the anger over violent crime resurfaced.

It all underlines a political weakness that has not been fully exploited in Thursday's third-term bid.

“Sadiq isn’t a hugely popular mayor in terms of his record,” Chris Hopkins of polling company Savanta told The National.

"He’s seen to have a good record in terms of the things that don’t matter that much to Londoners.

“He’s got a good record on equality and diversity and green spaces and things like that, but less so on the cost of living, on the economic side of things, on crime in particular, and those things do rank higher to Londoners.”

But Ms Hall is “fighting a losing battle” against the tide of national politics, while Mr Khan has proved capable of shoring up his core vote.

“That is going to be predominantly younger voters, it's going to be predominantly those from an ethnic minority background," Mr Hopkins said.

"In London, that just gives Susan Hall a smaller pool to fish in, frankly.”

Business salami sliced

I've been fascinated this week by a set of pix behind the scenes of the new Brexit-induced import controls at British borders at British borders. These microscoping processes are happening at London's Gateway port.

Small imports from the EU of deli-counter foods such as fish, salami, sausage, cheese and yoghurt will now be subject to fees of up to ￡145 from this week. Also covered under the plans are plants and seeds.

As a result, food imports to the UK are about to get more expensive and complicated as the British government implements the Brexit deal.

A glimpse inside another of the complexes where checks will be carried out, at the London Gateway port in Essex, showed the process can boil down to a single box of potatoes undergoing inspection by hand with notes left for further close looks.

For the bigger importers, the charges are higher. John Davidson, co-owner of flower company Tom Brown Wholesale, said he expected the checks to cost his business between ￡200,000 and ￡225,000 ($250,460 and $281,765) per year.

Industry body, the Cold Chain Federation, said the costs were bound to affect prices. They would have to be passed on to “either the EU importer, the smaller UK retailer, or the UK consumer”.

Small businesses which have suffered greatly in the past few years – what with Covid, rising cost-of-living, supply chain issues, not to mention the sheer difficulty of running your own business – are being clobbered yet again. Not only them. Also made to suffer will be their customers who will be expected to absorb some of the new fees.

But what are those charges really for? The government’s explanation is that they are to pay for the checking centres. But they’re only required because of Brexit. So, it’s a Brexit burden, pure and simple.

Iran explained

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron says Britain must not label Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorists as this would end diplomatic relations and result in him sending messages to Tehran “via France”.

Lord Cameron said indirect messages sent to Iran from countries that did not have diplomatic relations, including America, led to frequent requests to the British from the Iranians to explain the meaning of the entreaties.

Asked if the IRGC should be proscribed as a terrorist group, Lord Cameron said this would immediately end diplomatic relations of a kind that allowed exchanges to take place even as the schisms grew wider.

Concerns about the IRGC and others waging a subterranean influence campaign in the UK, which includes plots against dissidents or those it deems enemies, have risen on the Conservative benches.

Ministers are regularly asked about the prospects of designating the IRGC as a terror group.

Those less sure of their brief than the former prime minister often mumble about matters under review.

Lord Cameron has given the most clear-cut response – that he wants to be able to pick up the phone to the Iranian Foreign Minister amid the horrendous tensions surrounding its Middle East role.

I think we can consider the matter parked.