It was a typical political assault advert. “London: a metropolis steeped in historical past,” says the narrator, as darkish string music performs. However its historical streets bear witness to a distinct story tonight. “It isn’t a narrative of kings and queens, however of crime and despair.”
The advert’s sombre, American-accented narration was accompanied by grim black-and-white pictures, together with a shadowy determine strolling down an alley, a younger lady trying sadly out of a window, and frightened passengers operating by way of the prepare station.
However there was an issue. These terrified individuals dashing to security? They weren’t in London. They have been at Penn Station in New York. In 2017.
The advert, initially posted Monday on social media, was designed to steer Londoners to vote for Susan Corridor, the Conservative candidate for mayor, over Labour’s incumbent Sadiq Khan.
Khan informed a BBC reporter: “I believe it’s unpatriotic for us to at all times transfer out of the capital.” “However I worry that is one other instance of the manifestation of my worry, which is that this Conservative election will likely be the place there’s misinformation, the place there are lies, and on this case it’s clear that the video was not of our metropolis however of New York.” “.
Ms. Corridor didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The false footage was recognized as coming from a stampede that occurred at Penn Station in April 2017 amid false reviews of gunfire. No photographs have been fired, CNN reported on the time. Individuals panicked once they heard the sound of law enforcement officials utilizing a stun gun.
Ms Corridor has raised the difficulty of crime within the marketing campaign, which can finish with the election on Might 2. “Crime has gotten uncontrolled underneath Sadiq Khan,” she mentioned on Monday. “This should change,” she mentioned on Monday.
Whereas statistics counsel that crime has risen reasonably in London since Mr Khan’s election in 2016, the chance of somebody in London being a sufferer of crime is decrease than the common in Britain as a complete. (For that matter, regardless of that second of panic at Penn Station and up to date extremely publicized circumstances, main crimes are on the decline in New York as properly, police knowledge present.)
London-born Mr Khan grew to become the primary Muslim and first individual of coloration to be Mayor of London when he was elected with 57 per cent of the vote in 2016. He was re-elected in 2021 with 55 per cent. He has a cushty lead within the polls this yr as properly.
Along with crime, Ms. Corridor has lobbied strongly towards increasing the ultra-low emission zone, or OLZ, a plan underneath which drivers of autos that don’t meet emissions requirements should pay £12, or 50 pence, or about $15.80, per automotive. day if they’re driving in London.
Some jail guards finishing up Ollie’s have lined their faces with masks after being threatened and harassed by activists who oppose the scheme.
The advert pronounces, earlier than and after the Penn Station scene is eliminated, that: “Deep in these slim lanes, march bands of Ollie’s enforcers, wearing black, their faces lined with balaclavas, terrorizing native communities on the behest of their employees.” Mr. Mayor.”