Sadiq Khan was last night facing fresh questions over his public spending habits amid scrutiny of London’s globe-trotting ‘night tsar’ who has been jetting around the world despite more than 1,100 bars and clubs shutting in the capital in just the past three years.
Amy Lamé, the woman put in charge of rejuvenating night culture in the city, has been criticised for travelling to , Italy and Spain while presiding over the decline of London’s nightlife.
City Hall last night insisted the trips were essential to ‘share best practice learn from other cities and build partnerships’, but critics say Ms Lamé – who is on £117,000-a-year working for the Mayor and also works as a DJ on BBC Radio 6 – is struggling to justify her trips abroad.
Industry chiefs and Tories are questioning whether she is providing value for money as startling figures show the capital is falling behind cities such as Liverpool and Birmingham.
It comes as Mr Khan sparked fury for splurging more than £6million on a woke rebrand of the Overground and a string of other projects including the derided ‘say Maaate’ anti-harassment campaign and the controversial New Year’s Eve fireworks diversity display.
Amy Lamé, pictured here with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, travelled to , Italy and Spain in the space of 12 months in her role as ‘night tsar’
Ms Lamé (second left) pictured with night mayors from other countries at a meeting in Sydney
While nightlife in many cities is struggling to bounce back following the pandemic and is now suffering a double hit with the cost of living crisis, the decline has been more marked in the capital than elsewhere.
Figures from Square-Up, a firm which processes payments for businesses, said that in terms of the sheer number of transactions Liverpool and Birmingham have now overtaken London.
One survey found that 1,165 venues have closed in London since pandemic, and the head of one industry body says that while all cities in Britain are facing issues, Ms Lamé has to answer for London’s poor performance.
Michael Knill, the CEO of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), told The Times that he believes that while the ‘night tsar’ has to oversee all 32 boroughs of London – a job that is far greater than others in her position elsewhere – there are still questions that need answering.
He said: ‘There is a big difference between signposting and virtue signalling and driving tangible change. We see a lot of announcements but not so many results.’
He claimed ‘the industry feels there hasn’t been a strong enough voice for us’ and that while there have been worthwhile initiatives such as the women’s night safety charter, more is needed.
Ms Lamé’s trips abroad – which saw her travel to Sydney, Bologna and Madrid in the space of 12 months in 2022 and 2023 – were not paid for by the taxpayer and were instead funded through private donations.
However, they have still raised questions about whether they are a good use of her time, with Mr Knill saying ‘we have got such economic pressures at home, people in the industry are saying, ‘Why are you there when you should be here?”
Peter Fortune, Conservative London Assembly member for Bexley and Bromley, told the publication he was not necessarily against Ms Lamé travelling abroad to promote the city.
He said: ‘But I want to see outcomes as a result of those trips. What’s happened as a result of , of Bologna? Where’s the bang for the buck?’
Ms Lamé (right) pictured with the vice mayor of Bologna (centre) and the night mayor of Trento (left) during a trip to Italy
The trips taken by Ms Lamé, who also works as a presenter for BBC Radio 6, were funded through private donations
Ms Lamé took up the role of London’s night tsar in 2016 and since then has seen her salary rise from £80,000 to £116,925
A spokesperson for Mr Khan said figures from UKHospitality showed revenue in London’s hospitality sector had risen by £3billion to £46billion in four years. They claims live music and hospitality ‘defied all expectations’ last year.
The Mayor has come under criticism in recent weeks for what is seen by some as ‘misplaced priorities’ when spending taxpayers money.
Earlier this month travellers slammed Mr Khan for spending £6.3million from the Greater London Authority budget on renaming and recolouring all six London Overground lines.
The majority of the money went on updating customer information, such as redesigning and redisplaying maps across all Tube and London Overground stations, and issuing new versions in print and online.
There was scorn from some quarters as the names – Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty – were revealed, with Khan himself admitting ‘not everybody is going to be happy’.
In January a report compiled by the Conservatives accused the Mayor of wasting £123million of taxpayers money, a sum disputed by sources within his own team.
Tories in the London Assembly said Khan was wasting millions of pounds on ‘spin doctors, marketing and pointless initiatives’.
This includes £10million on five-day workshops for the Met Police and staff which had a test to ‘determine the colour’ of their personalities, almost £1million on ‘beach parties’ and £500,000 on free advertising for a vaginal moisturising company.
Transport for London paid £115,275 to DNCO for five months of ‘naming research’, revealed.
The majority of the £6.3million rebrand cost will go towards updating signs and maps across the transport network and public address announcements will be re-recorded from the autumn.
Mr Khan has stood by his decision in the face of criticism and claims it was a ‘shamelessly political’ policy in an election year, hailing the new names as reflecting ‘London’s rich culture and history’.
Mr Khan and Transport for London chose DNCO for the project after they named the road that the new City Hall in the Royal Docks, Newham.
The ended up with Kamal Chunchie Way – in honour of the late Sri Lankan minister and anti-racism campaigner – after ‘Londoners’ Square’ and ‘Ship Horns Yard’ were rejected.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan unveils the new Overground lines at Highbury and Islington yesterday. His names have caused a split
The new Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty lines on the Overground
DNCO bills itself as ‘an agency that we are using that specialises in creative community engagement’.
Transport for London, the body run by Mayor Khan and responsible for the network also including the Tube, says it has given the six routes distinct identities to make it easier for passengers.
The Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty lines were revealed by the Mayor of London.
But Mr Khan’s Tory mayoral rival Susan Hall said: ‘The only surprise from today’s announcement is that he hasn’t named one of them the Sadiq line.’ Conservatives MPs said Mr Khan was ‘just putting a new lick of paint over a creaking transport system’.
Others highlighted the cost, which comes six months after TfL was saved from bankruptcy by the Government with a £3.6billion bailout.
TfL’s crime report revealed there had been a 50 per cent rise in violence and aggression against Tube staff, up from 431 incidents between April and September in 2022 to 647 incidents in the same period in 2023.
The announcement also comes four days before a major Overground strike will hit services from next Monday. Mr Khan, who is standing for re-election as the capital’s mayor on May 2, caused outrage last year with his Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) expansion – and is now battling for a third term with his recent decisions to freeze travel fares and make Fridays off-peak from next month. Overground lines have all been identified as orange since the network was created in 2007.
Each route will be represented on Tube maps as parallel lines in different colours. Ms Hall told the Mail: ‘A thousand people have been killed under his mayoralty, and yet Sadiq Khan is only interested in this virtue signalling nonsense.
‘The only surprise from [the] announcement is that he hasn’t named one of them the Sadiq line.’
Paul Scully, a former minister of London, said: ‘Londoners just want a mayor who can get them from A to B on time, at reasonable cost and in a degree of comfort, not just spraying a word cloud of virtue signalling at a cost of £6million of taxpayers’ money. He’s just putting a new lick of paint over a creaking transport system rather than doing the job Londoners expect.’
London Overground rail lines are being given individual names and colours in a major overhaul
And Bob Blackman, the Conservative MP for Harrow East, said: ‘Another woke idea from a mayor who becomes more ridiculous every day.’
But Mr Khan welcomed the naming of lines, adding: ‘We are honouring and celebrating different parts of London’s unique local history and culture.’
The ‘night tsar’ was also among those targeted in the report, with the Conservatives claiming £70,000 of taxpayers money was spent on a drag act called ‘Duckie Loves Fanny’ which was hosted by Ms Lamé.
But the Mayor’s office fired back, branding the report ‘misleading’ and attacking the government for failing to provide enough cash to fund the capital’s public services.
A spokesperson for the Mayor told The Times: ‘The Night Tsar’s work includes standing up for the 1.3 million Londoners who work evenings and nights to ensure better pay and conditions, protecting hundreds of venues and helping many new ones to open, and creating the groundbreaking Night Time Enterprise Zone programme to boost the capital’s high streets.
‘Amy is helping to put women’s safety at the heart of more than 2,100 organisations, making licensing easier to navigate, and supporting boroughs to develop nighttime strategies to plan better for all aspects of life at night.’
has contacted City Hall for further comment.