The London Mayor Sadiq Khan has faced a brutal grilling by BBC Radio 4 host Nick Robinson who confronted Mr Khan on the number of homes built in the capital in the last four years.
Mr Khan claimed to have “broken records” in building more affordable homes in the capital city since he has taken office as Mayor, however, Mr Khan was reminded by Mr Robinson that he had built fewer homes than the Prime Minister during his time as the London Mayor.
Mr Robinson said: “You’re in effect saying vote for me and I’ll get Boris Johnson to give me more powers to control rents.
“You know what your critics, your opponents will say. ‘He wants to distract’.
“And I noticed that you used the words ‘we have begun’ to build more council houses and ‘we have begun’ more generally affordable homes.
“That’s because you haven’t completed them yet, have you?
“You built less and actually finished them than Boris Johnson when he was mayor.”
The London Mayor replied: “You’ve got to start them before you finish them. It takes about two years once you start a property to finish it.
“So next year you’ll see the completion that we began two years ago.
“One of the first things I did was to ditch the dodgy definition of what an affordable home is.
“The previous mayor thought that an affordable home was one of two things. Either a home that is 80 per cent of market value rents or a home costing £450,000 to buy.
“I ditched that and I made it harder for myself and I said an affordable home is one of three things: either a council home, or one where you pay a third of average incomes in the area, or shared ownership with part rent and a deposit of £5,000.
“I’ve broken records for the most starts in London.”
Mr Robinson responded by saying: “I notice that word ‘start’ again. You’ve been in office for four years!”
Sadiq Khan is set to stand as the Labour candidate for the mayoral set in May despite his performance on the likes of crime repeatedly being called into question.
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