Tessa Jowell, who stood down from her seat at this election, served as MP for Dulwich from 1992. In that time, she served in a number of ministerial and Shadow ministerial roles, most notably as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 2001-7, and as Olympics Minister from 2005-10, and was instrumental in bringing the Olympic games to the capital.
Tessa Jowell is Labour's best candidate for London Mayor, says Peter Kellner
Who will be London's next Mayor? Read more on the race for City Hall
Why should you be Mayor of London in a sentence? London is facing a crisis, and risks becoming... divided by inequality. I’m the candidate with the vision and the plan to build one London.
What is the biggest challenge facing London in 2016-2020? The housing crisis. I would immediately establish HFL [Homes for Londoners], which would be a taskforce that would begin house building again, starting by building on the land that the Mayor owns. Not just homes for social rent, but also for affordable rent, and that would involve building for private sector letting. Homes for Londoners would recruit the best people in the world to shorten the unacceptable length of time it takes to get development underway.
What do you see as the best aspect of Boris Johnson’s administration? I think as an ambassador for London, and—during the Olympic games—capturing the zeitgeist of London. I would be an ambassador... by promoting confidence in London in potential investors from around the world. I would also build trade links with key bilateral partners like India, Brazil, the Far East, in order to promote investment in London.
If you could have one more devolved power from central government, what would it be? The power to retain taxes raised in London... as a way of tackling the housing crisis. Compared to any other major city, London keeps a tiny fraction of the tax that it raises and that is detrimental to... good growth. London is a city which is growing at a rate of 100,000 [people] a year, but even if the infrastructure currently proposed was realised, we still would not be satisfying the increased demand created by this increased population size. So there is a crisis facing London and London has to have the means to fund the solutions to that crisis.
How would you define a Londoner? It’s identity with the city, and identity with the character of our city—its open, diverse, tolerance, which I think is a hallmark. Ask anybody who lives in London, they will tell you what the Londoner means, because it does promote, I think, a sense of common shared identity, where things like tolerance and at thrill at the diversity of our city are taken for granted.
Tessa Jowell is Labour's best candidate for London Mayor, says Peter Kellner
Who will be London's next Mayor? Read more on the race for City Hall
Why should you be Mayor of London in a sentence? London is facing a crisis, and risks becoming... divided by inequality. I’m the candidate with the vision and the plan to build one London.
What is the biggest challenge facing London in 2016-2020? The housing crisis. I would immediately establish HFL [Homes for Londoners], which would be a taskforce that would begin house building again, starting by building on the land that the Mayor owns. Not just homes for social rent, but also for affordable rent, and that would involve building for private sector letting. Homes for Londoners would recruit the best people in the world to shorten the unacceptable length of time it takes to get development underway.
What do you see as the best aspect of Boris Johnson’s administration? I think as an ambassador for London, and—during the Olympic games—capturing the zeitgeist of London. I would be an ambassador... by promoting confidence in London in potential investors from around the world. I would also build trade links with key bilateral partners like India, Brazil, the Far East, in order to promote investment in London.
If you could have one more devolved power from central government, what would it be? The power to retain taxes raised in London... as a way of tackling the housing crisis. Compared to any other major city, London keeps a tiny fraction of the tax that it raises and that is detrimental to... good growth. London is a city which is growing at a rate of 100,000 [people] a year, but even if the infrastructure currently proposed was realised, we still would not be satisfying the increased demand created by this increased population size. So there is a crisis facing London and London has to have the means to fund the solutions to that crisis.
How would you define a Londoner? It’s identity with the city, and identity with the character of our city—its open, diverse, tolerance, which I think is a hallmark. Ask anybody who lives in London, they will tell you what the Londoner means, because it does promote, I think, a sense of common shared identity, where things like tolerance and at thrill at the diversity of our city are taken for granted.
