Government’s flagship levelling up scheme is ‘smoke and mirrors’ politics, says Sadiq Khan

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan gave evidence to the House of Commons levelling up, housing and communities select committee today on the topic of the recent round of the levelling up funding.

The Labour mayor criticised the funding, calling it “smoke and mirrors politics” and stressing that it was little compared to the 12 years of austerity Londoners faced.

He said: “Levelling up adds little value to London’s communities. I think it’s the best example I can think of of the politics of smoke and mirrors in the last five years. Nobody’s against the objective of levelling up, levelling up people and loving communities. But the evidence in relation to when you apply for the process, the evidence in relation to who receives the moneys, in my view, shows it’s been an unmitigated disaster for our capital city”.