Sadiq Khan admitting that he struggled during lockdown is a sign of strength, not weakness

The London mayor was showing the sort of courage and leadership that this country is in desperate need of, but it was met with a sneering, snarky response on Twitter

James Moore
Monday 22 June 2020 12:27 BST
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“Erm - #SadiqKhan has never provided proper leadership.”

Before launching an attack on Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, no really, and promoting/cheering on her fave right-wing shock jocks, Susan Hall, the leader of the Conservative Group on the Greater London Assembly, decided she was going to start the week classy by weaponising mental health. Specifically the London mayor’s.

Let me explain: over the weekend, Sadiq Khan gave an interview in which he was asked about whether the lockdown had had an impact on his mental health. He answered with an honesty we’re not accustomed to hearing from politicians of any stripe these days.

“I’ve got no doubt it did. In the sense of just feeling a bit down. There are days when I'm not providing proper leadership. I definitely… I felt fragile,” he said.

In admitting he’s under the sort of strain an awful lot of us are under (including myself), he did something shocking. He showed that he’s not just a politician. He's also an actual human being.

For a minute it almost felt as if we were in one of those sensible countries where they get to choose mostly sensible and professional people to run things as opposed to the dismal parade of second rate screw-ups who are trotted out at the government’s daily briefings to bat away questions about why Britain has the highest per capita Covid-19 death toll in the world.

An admission of vulnerability and fallibility is considered distinctly de classe by a political elite that trades in a toxic mix of misinformation, bluster, bulls**t and cheap theatrics.

It wasn't a surprise to me that the governing party’s leader on the Greater London Assembly jumped on Khan’s words by issuing a snide and snarky Twitter quip before going on to trumpet that asinine campaign to boycott Ben & bloody Jerry’s for being too woke.

The Conservative hypocrisy here is richer than even the sickliest flavour combo the Californian ice cream company has yet dreamed up, and believe you me that took some doing.

Matt Hancock breaks lockdown and says he’s “only human”. Dominic Cummings is caring for his family by driving up the motorway to Durham and then performing an eye test on a trip to a local beauty spot.

Sadiq Khan offers some honest empathy and, well, he’s never been a proper leader, has he? Let’s just tip the man into a vat of Ben & Jerry’s and have done with him.

Needless to say, from what I've seen, Hall’s followers are a similarly classy bunch and they duly delivered a similarly classy reaction. It’s just a sympathy ploy, was the prevailing narrative.

But Khan wasn’t seeking anything of the kind for the challenges the capital is facing, and the challenges he’s having to deal with.

He wasn’t electioneering. There’ll be plenty of time for that next year, when we voters will get to have our say, and the Tories will have theirs, which, if they follow the Islamophobic script written for Zac Goldsmith in his losing effort last time around, isn’t anything to look forward to.

What he was doing was showing the sort of courage and leadership that this country is in desperate need of.

Here’s what Hall could have said, had she wanted to demonstrate that she could show a similarly advanced level of humanity. It busts Twitter’s character limit, but I’m sure there’s someone on Hall’s team who could cut and paste it into a PDF.

“I was sorry to read about the mayor’s struggles over the weekend. It’s a difficult time and we’re all of us facing unprecedented challenges.

“While we on the Conservative group profoundly disagree with the mayor’s policies, and will continue to do so, we have a responsibility to support each other at this difficult time. We will endeavour to do that while providing the constructive opposition Londoners deserve.”

Trouble is, in the Trumpian pit the Conservative Party has deliberately slipped into, saying that would have implied “weakness”. No, what we need is snarky, sneering Twitter nastiness. Substance? Pfah. Damn you, substance.

In my view, Hall really is a fine representative of the nasty party. I bet she’ll go far: more’s the pity for the capital. More’s the pity for the country during this dismally low epoch in British political life.

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