Can Mayor Pete Buttigieg oust Donald Trump? & Shaun Bailey's pitch for London Mayor

There’s all-out war between Republicans and Democrats in Washington, and Donald Trump appears to be winning. Nancy Pelosi may have ripped up the print-out of his State of the Union address, but the President’s approval ratings are at an all-time high and the impeachment trial against him is likely to end in his acquittal. Emerging from the debacle of the Democrats’ botched Iowa Caucus however, is a challenger whose campaign is being likened to Barack Obama’s. We speak to Evening Standard columnist Philip Delves Broughton about the outsider who could be making strides towards the White House, Pete Buttigieg.

Shaun Bailey’s pitch for London Mayor

Conservative Shaun Bailey is currently in the running for the London mayoral election. In a special interview Shaun Bailey speaks to The Leader podcast about the big problems facing Londoners, such as violent knife crime, transport and housing. Mr Bailey explains how he proposes to improve these areas, such as bringing in record policing numbers which he says the current mayor of London, Sadiq Kahn, removed. He explains why he will raise Transport for London fares to improve public transport, and reveals why being close to homeless himself gave him a personal understanding why housing and the cost of living needs to be fairer. 

Comment editor Susannah Butter also interviewed Shaun Bailey where for the first time he spoke about the sudden death of his brother.

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INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:

Shaun Bailey 0:04  

I think when you speak to Londoners or you know, when people sit in their living room, what are the big issues for London? This is what I call the Trinity really. There's crime, there's housing and there's environment and for me, environment includes transport as well. Transport and environment are intimately wrapped up in London. But they're what I consider the trinity of the big ticket issues we're facing in London. 

David Marsland 0:23  

All of those have been covered quite extensively in the Evening Standard. But recently, we've done a lot of front pages about violent crime in London. How do you solve that? 

Shaun Bailey 0:33  

To me, it's quite clear. We need a tough and a tender approach. So on the tough end you hear me talking about a record amount of police from the money we already have in City Hall. You hear me talk about new technologies to help with stop and search, a full scan and search - you can scale up in people's pockets. And also hear me talk about giving the police the backing and the finances to do the job. I think our current mayor talked about, you know, reducing stop and search as much as he could when he became mayor. I've always felt that as a bit of a problem because although stop and search isn't the be all and end all by any means, it does send a signal alongside decent patrolling, that the police are here and visible. And that's how you you know, that's how you get across that no, it is not the Wild West, you...

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