{"id":305811,"date":"2025-07-31T05:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T05:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/305811\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T05:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T05:35:10","slug":"robert-cossins-london-conservatives-should-focus-more-on-housing-and-tax-than-on-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/305811\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Cossins: London Conservatives should focus more on housing and tax than on crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Cossins is a Conservative activist in South West London.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2026, Sadiq Khan will have been Mayor of London for a decade. In that time, he\u2019ll have overseen rocketing housing costs, deteriorating nightlife and poorer public services. London is the world\u2019s great City, held back by its political leadership.<\/p>\n

Despite this picture, Conservatives have struggled to win elections. Why?<\/p>\n

First, let us tackle one misnomer: \u201cLondon is a Labour City\u201d. To the casual observer, that seems true \u2013 Labour-led councils and a Labour City Hall dominate the political scene. It\u2019s a feature outside of London too, with a general urban move towards voting Labour in large cities. However, this ignores the cyclicality of politics \u2013 eventually, people get bored of you. The Conservatives can win in London.<\/p>\n

Winning the Mayoral election when the Conservatives are in power nationally has been a tall order. But they haven\u2019t helped themselves, and have repeatedly made a series of campaigning errors when they could\u2019ve done better. What\u2019s worse, these mistakes keep being repeated.<\/p>\n

Conservatives love to run campaigns on crime. It motivates voter turnout, drives angst, highlights weak incumbents and cuts across demographics. But unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t work. There\u2019s plenty of evidence it doesn\u2019t work, in London at least. How many times does this strategy have to be repeated for the party to figure that out?<\/p>\n

Crime doesn\u2019t work as a campaign strategy in London, because for the average person, they feel pretty safe. Crime in London is low compared to other big cities. Crime is also relatively isolated, whether that\u2019s gang-related knife crime, phone thefts on Oxford Street or shoplifting. Most people feel safe. That doesn\u2019t mean crime isn\u2019t important; it just means that it\u2019s not a vote-winning strategy.<\/p>\n

Winning back London lies in motivating disaffected Sadiq supporters, not mobilising a shrunken Tory vote. They already turn out proportionally higher than other parties. But voters are incredibly frustrated with Sadiq, so let\u2019s make the most of that \u2013 Tories need to mobilise their support.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at the demographics. What do people in London care about? And how can a campaign be built to mobilise voters away from Sadiq? The average age of people in London is 35, versus 40 for the rest of the UK. It also has a high proportion of the population in work. For a successful London Conservative campaign, we have to figure out what working-age people care about.<\/p>\n

I propose three pillars to build a campaign around. This is intended as a basis for discussion, rather than being prescriptive. There\u2019s an alternative world where a strong green campaign would work well too.<\/p>\n