London Mayoral hustings: Webchat with Zac Goldsmith MP, Conservative Mayoral candidate, on Wednesday 27 April at 9am

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to announce a webchat with Zac Goldsmith MP, the Conservative candidate for London Mayor, on Wednesday 27 April at 9am.

UPDATE FROM MNHQ: The time of this webchat has now been changed to Wednesday 27 April at 9am.

Before entering politics, Zac ran The Ecologist magazine. He has been the MP for Richmond Park since 2010 and says he has been ‘focusing on local issues, such as free parking on local high streets, funding for Kew Gardens, and fighting against the expansion of Heathrow Airport’. According to his campaign, his plans for London include ‘working with the government to secure the funds and powers to deliver his action plan for Greater London: more homes, better transport, cleaner air and safer streets’.

Please do join the webchat on Wednesday, or if you can’t make it, please leave a question here in advance. And do remember our webchat guidelines; one question each only (follow-ups allowed if there’s time) and please do be polite.

The London mayoral election will be held on 5 May.

Thanks
MNHQ

Hi, what things do you personally do at home with your family that are good for the environment?

Hi Zac, specifically please can you outline what you intend to do to improve the housing situation, in particular for those of us unable to afford up buy and also those in unsecure rentals having to uproot their families every 6 months or so. Thankyou

Zac, aren't a lot of the issues you campaign on - free parking, funding for parks etc - stuff that is really easy to have a pop at local councils over, and yet it's your Government that has reduced the funding of local councils the most?

Even Tory councils are fed up of being the whipping posts of aspirational Tory MPs and candidates, whether it be over forced academisation of schools or these coming elections.

Zac, I would like to ask why you have decided to make fomenting ethnic unrest a plank of your electoral campaign. I have found it extremely distasteful. Have you not worried that it might alienate voters such as myself?

Hi Zac, please can you explain why you have felt it necessary to run a negative campaign, in particular your focus on sadiq khan's religion?

Of all the jobs in politics, why do you want be Mayor of London?

I've heard lots about why you don't think Khan should be mayor but not why you think you should be.

Thanks

How much of your wealth is hidden in offshore tax havens?

You raised questions about Sadiq Khan's links with terrorists. Your nephews (Jemima's sons) regularly meet up with their father Imran Khan (the Pakistani cricketer) who has long standing sympathy with Taliban (he says he goes to on don to spend holidays with his sons). Have you ever helped Jemima campaign for any causes that Imran Khan has worked on?

Are you embarrassed to have been photographed with Suliman Gani who you described as "one of the most repellent figures in this country"? Embarrassed that he supported Tooting Conservative candidate Dan Watkins against Sadiq Khan? Embarrassed that Dan Watkins invited him to the Conservative Muslim Forum event which you also attended?

I would like to wish you success in the mayoral election. I no longer live in London but you would get my vote if I did. Just in case you didn't know, Mumsnet is predominantly left wing so you will be getting a rough ride on Tuesday but I'm sure you will cope admirably.

I used to really like you, Zac, but you've turned out to be yet another arrogant, greedy aristocrat with no idea about everyday lives. As I'm no longer a Londoner and this isn't my soapbox, I'll quickly reference the current topic by reminding everyone that your knowledge of London seems to have come from EastEnders.

What leads you to think you know what's best for Londoners, when you don't much about them?

I'm interested in a straight answer to Ophelia's question, too.

Why do you think Peter Oborne is urging fellow Tory Londoners to vote for Sadiq?

Zac, the Underground trade unions have been a thorn in your predecessor's side, yet he refused ever to meet them. Assuming you are willing to meet them, how do you think withdrawing their wives or husbands travel passes will go down with them?

Have you asked your ex-wife about any tips she may have for a we chat on mumsnet? - I wouldn't normally be so mean as to mention it but you have decided to go full on racist in your campaign so I don't care. I am a Londoner and am disgusted by your campaign.

Awww I would join in the Web chat on Tuesday, unfortunately me and my family are otherwise engaged.....on the picket line at my local hospital marching against the imposition of the junior doctors contract and marching to save the NHS. Shame that.

Zac in an interview with Grazia magazine you said you would not describe yourself as a feminist. Please can you elaborate on why this is the case?

Im childfree by choice so am not talking about myself but there are many women on this site in a similar position to that of your ex wife but in the cases on here are having major problems accessing Child Support payments.

In light of this fact what are the plans to tightening up the Child Maintenance Service. And why are women having to pay to even gain access to the process.

What are you going to do to support junior doctors in London in their fight against a discriminatory, unsafe and unfair contract being imposed by an out of touch central government hell bent on destroying the NHS?

Can you tell us a bit more about your track record as MP? What have you done about protecting the green belt and/or third runway at Heathrow?

Zac, the eldest of my children will be catching the tube by himself for the first time later this year. How can I be sure that he will be safe?

Hello Mr Goldsmith, pleased to meet you. I note from the 5 May booklet that you do not mention your opposition to the enlarged hub capacity at LHR. I would have thought this would be an important bullet point, but it is nowhere in your Action Plan - Why? Adding a third runway is simply greed by the Spanish owners of Heathrow. I have advised them to build an extra runway at MALAGA airport, if they are so keen on the hub business!

Hi Zac

I've got some relatives who live in Richmond Park. They're lifelong lefties but they've been won over by you as a constituency MP; they've been really pleased by your independent stances and I know at least one of them actually voted for you in 2015.

I spoke to them over the weekend and they're very saddened and a bit disgusted by the tenor of your mayoral campaign. I think it's safe to say that if you stand in a General Election again they won't be voting for you.

Richmond isn't one of those constituencies where ethnic/religious stereotype dog-whistles are likely to go down very well, even among your core voters. Haven't you sacrificed the goodwill of your constituents? And did Lynton Crosby make you do it?

Dear Sadiq Can you respond to Lord Sugars attack on you please?

blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/lord-sugar-savages-sadiq-khan-he-has-single-handedly-wrecked-the-labour-party/

www.independent.co.uk/news/people/lord-sugar-launches-blistering-attack-on-sadiq-khan-for-single-handedly-ruining-labour-a6998211.html

"Labour now welcomes anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers to its ranks, the TV star warned."I would say Khan has single-handedly wrecked the Labour Party, and now he's turning his finely honed judgment on the great city of London," the peer wrote in The Sunday Times."

Hi Zac, I am a 34 year old woman who has suffered 2 miscarriages over the last 12 years, after consciously trying to conceive for the last 4 years and receiving NHS help for a laparoscopy which showed I had endometrioses. I have been told to give it a few more months and then plan for private IVF. My partner of 7 years already has a 10 year old daughter from a previous relationship so I am no longer entitled to NHS funding, even though his sperm has been checked and in working order so we clearly know the problem lies with me. Why am I not treated as an independent person when it comes to this, and why is my chance at becoming a mother being taken from me just because of who I am in a relationship with? What are your views and guidance you can offer me?

Shannon