Sir Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, is under investigation for accepting £3,000 worth of free tickets to Taylor Swift’s concert in August 2024. The inquiry, initiated by City Hall’s watchdog, will assess whether Khan acted with appropriate caution in receiving the tickets, especially following Tory Susie Hall’s request for an investigation after losing the previous mayoral election. Concerns arose over VIP treatment for Swift, leading to increased security costs, which rose significantly after a bomb threat at a previous concert. Khan has stated that all gifts are declared transparently, citing an administrative error in the ticket declaration.
Sir Sadiq Khan is facing an official investigation over his decision to accept free tickets to Taylor Swift’s sold-out concert in London last year.
City Hall’s watchdog will investigate whether the Mayor of London “exercised an appropriate level of caution” when accepting £3,000 worth of prizes for Elas Tours.
Tory Susie Hall, who lost last year’s mayoral election, has called for an investigation into her decision to accept six tickets worth £500 each for a global superstar’s appearance at Wembley Stadium in the summer. demanded.
After her previous show in Austria was canceled due to a bomb threat, she and her entourage arrived at the north-west London venue under police escort to attend the Aug. 15 show.
Questions have been raised over the VIP status given to Ms Swift, with security costs at her concerts increasing by more than £150,000 after the pop megastar was ordered to wear a blue light escort.
A Greater London Authority (GLA) spokesperson said: “The inspector general is considering the complaint against the mayor and will not investigate three of the four allegations.”
“An investigation will now be conducted to determine whether the Mayor exercised an appropriate level of care in deciding to accept the ticket.”
The other three allegations are a delay in declaring the Mayor’s tickets, an inaccurate initial declaration that put the value of the tickets at less than £200 each, and donor LS Events selling tickets to the Mayor during the contract bid. It is said that this is related to whether or not he handed it over.
The City Hall watchdog will investigate whether the Mayor of London “exercised an appropriate level of caution” when he accepted the £3,000 worth of prizes.
After her previous show in Austria was canceled due to a bomb threat, she and her entourage arrived at the north-west London venue under police escort to attend the Aug. 15 show.
Questions have been raised over the VIP treatment given to Ms Swift, with the cost of concert security increasing by more than £150,000 after the pop megastar was given a blue light escort.
Ms Hall said: “While I welcome an investigation into the validity of receiving these tickets, I have been seeking answers from Mr Khan for months, but the mayor was slow to declare these tickets and initially did not reveal who was who. I am disappointed that the inspectorate did not take into account the fact that the declaration was made incorrectly.” Either they donated, they were undervalued, or the donor was a GLA contractor. More answers are desperately needed. ”
A spokesperson for Lord Sadiq said: “All gifts received by the Mayor are declared openly and transparently.”
“There was an administrative error in this case that has been corrected. The Mayor is not involved in the GLA Events procurement process or the bidding of these contracts.
The politicians were accused last year of pressuring Scotland Yard to use a special escort group to provide a police escort for her entourage to a north-west London stadium in August. They later attended several live shows for free.
This comes after a suicide bomb threat forced Swift to cancel her previous concert in Austria, although there were no specific threats against her five-day run in the British capital. Ta.
Questioned in the London parliament in October, Mr Khan insisted he had “never interfered in operational matters as far as the police were concerned”. But he acknowledged that he spoke “regularly” with the chief executive about important events happening in the capital.
Published figures show the three-day police crackdown on the tour at Wembley in June, before the concert in Vienna was threatened, cost £68,852.33 per night, or a total of £206,557. It was expensive.
But when Ms Swift returned to the UK in August after the bomb threat, the cost for the five nights was £99,678.21 per night, for a total of £498,391.05.
This suggests dates in August cost police more than £30,000 per night compared to June. The majority of costs were personnel costs, but there is no breakdown by department or role. Swift also contributed to police costs.
The number of officers involved also increased from 111 per night in June to 162 in August.
