Caller Furious When Sadiq Khan Accuses Him Of "Tory Propaganda" Over Housing

15 February 2019, 11:36

This is the moment an LBC caller hit back at Sadiq Khan after the Mayor of London accused him to spouting "Tory propaganda" when he questioned him over his record on housing.

Mr Khan promised to build 65,000 homes per year, half of which would be social housing.

Russell called in to query recent figures which suggested the number of social houses completed in the last three months was just 10% of the total number pledged.

After he put that to the Mayor, Mr Khan responded: "What's your source for that information? I often read Tory propaganda and this sounds like something from Tory propaganda."

An angry Russell hit back: "Hang on a second, these are your own figures."

The Mayor then explained: "I've set myself targets that would break records. Last year, my target for homes that should be begun that are affordable was 12,500.

"Had I met that target, I would have broken all records. I broke that target. We started last year more than 12,500 homes.

"But out of those 2,800 were homes where you pay a social rent, more than the previous four years put together.

"This year, I've set myself a target of more than 14,000 genuinely affordable homes. I am confident we will break again the number of genuinely affordable homes."

James clarified that the two of them were discussing different numbers - Russell was discussing completed houses, whereas Sadiq was referring to started builds.

James said the Mayor had been "a little disingenuous" when he accused the caller of Tory propaganda.

Sadiq responded: "Well I've seen this number on Tory propaganda, the idea that we're not doing the starts."