Tory Mayoral Hopeful Susan Hall Rips Sadiq Khan On Crime As ‘Pickpocketing’ Tale Unravels Live On Air

London’s Conservative mayoral hopeful Susan Hall’s claim of having been a victim of pickpocketing on the Tube slowly fell apart as LBC host Nick Ferrari politely walked her through the details to discover that the missing items were all returned by a member of the public.

Hall seized the opportunity to accuse current Mayor Sadiq Khan, her Labour rival, of allowing crime to spiral out of control, following the incident where she subsequently discovered that £40 in cash along with her Oyster public transport card were missing from her pocket.

“I just did a normal journey and, same thing with lots of people that are pickpocketed or whatever, you just get to the end of your journey and realise that you don’t have your Oyster or your pass or whatever,” Hall said. “And that’s what happened to me. I had no idea where it could have gone.”

“I had very, very deep pockets in my winter coat,” she continued, “which I keep it in or I kept it in. I will never do that again. I’ll lock it in my handbag. It wasn’t there. I had had it on one of the trains that I went on.”

The wallet was later returned by a passerby with the cash intact, yet Hall remains convinced it was a theft attempt.

“So, Susan,” Ferrari said, “you have your purse back minus, what? Your Oyster card and your credit cards and cash. What’s gone?”

“No, no,” she replied. “I don’t keep credit cards in there. It’s just literally the Oyster card and a business card or a couple of business cards I keep in that. So I’m very, very lucky, unlike many others.

“So the Oyster card is gone and your cash has gone?” the host pressed, struggling to see the problem.

Hall clarified: “No, the Oyster card was still in there. I only keep the Oyster card and the cash was still in there. There was some cash in there and that was still there.”

Moving to a political pitch, Hall began to criticise the current state of security in London under Kahn.

“Well, we’ve got to look at it in Sadiq Kahn’s London,” Hall said. “Thefts are up 31 percent, robberies are up 58 percent. Last year was the highest year for pickpocketing on the Underground… The mayor’s office blames the Conservative government, [Labour] say that the police cuts hit London harder than any other parts of the UK and that they need more officers and more funding as a result of Conservative cuts.”

As part of her campaign promises, Hall has pledged an additional £200 million for policing, focusing on establishing specialised units within the police force to combat burglaries, robberies, and thefts. She emphasised the need to dismantle the criminal gangs behind these crimes.

Data from the British Transport Police indicate a significant rise in thefts on the Tube, with 7,899 incidents reported in 2022, a sharp increase from 3,380 the previous year.

Hall faces an uphill battle in the upcoming mayoral elections. She was selected in July as the Conservative candidate who would race against Kahn in the 2024 London mayoral elections. A poll by Lord Michael Ashcroft shows her trailing significantly behind Khan, though internal Conservative party polling suggests a closer race.