Taylor Swift: Sir Sadiq Khan cleared over free concert tickets
Sir Sadiq watched the concert with family members from a VIP box on 15 August 2024, during the pop star's sell-out run at Wembley Stadium last summer.There were five other members of City Hall staff with him, including two senior officials.Mr McKenna decided in January that there would be no further investigation into three of the allegations - that the tickets were declared late, were undervalued, and were provided by a contractor.However, he asked an independent investigator to determine whether the mayor had "exercised an appropriate level of caution".This investigation has now cleared the mayor of all wrongdoing.
Susan Hall, leader of the City Hall Conservatives who made the initial complaint, said: "I am disappointed that the investigation has finished this way, but ultimately it'll be up to Londoners to decide whether the Mayor acted appropriately in accepting free tickets from a firm that contracts with the GLA for tens of millions of pounds."This investigation has shone a spotlight on the relationship between the Mayor and businesses contracted by the GLA."The mayor has said that he "has no involvement in the procurement process for GLA events, nor in the tendering of these contracts."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
I suffered incredibly vivid nightmares and even lashed out violently at my wife while asleep – I had no idea it was an early warning sign for this serious condition
Martin Pickard awoke in a state of terror. He had been dreaming that he was in the back of a London taxi, interviewing DJ Tony Blackburn. The back seat of the cab was littered with McDonald's cartons which, to his horror, began to move. 'The rubbish was covered in spiders,' Martin recalls. 'They were getting bigger and bigger, and when one the size of a wastepaper basket launched itself at my face, I threw open the cab door and jumped out – headfirst into the bedside cabinet.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘How can I find meaning from the ruins of my life?': the little magazine with a life-changing impact
One morning in February last year, I received an urgent call from the journalist Paul Burston, alerting me to alarming recent social media posts by a mutual friend, the poet and former model Max Wallis. It seemed he had left his London flat in deep distress and was headed to a bridge. Our best guess was the Millennium footbridge by St Paul's Cathedral. Then we heard that Max might have taken refuge inside the cathedral. While I scanned gaggles of tourists in the nave, he was intercepted and removed by ambulance. I was relieved to get a message later that evening that he was safe. We'd met more than a decade before at an event on the South Bank for the Polari prize, set up by Burston to showcase new LGBTQ+ writers. I and the other judges had shortlisted Wallis's collection Modern Love. Though the eventual winner was John McCullough, we stayed in touch, going on regular excursions: to Wilderness festival, to readings, to a rooftop art installation in Shoreditch. And always talking about poetry – writing it, reading it, thinking about it, critiquing it. Now, he tells me about the poetry magazine that emerged from the dark period of addiction that followed his early success. 'I lost 12 years of my life, maybe more,' he says over a video call. 'The magazine came about from me saying: 'I have to do something this year; my brain is on fire and it's running like a hamster wheel.' I wanted to corral the chaos: how can I find meaning from the ruins of my life?' After his breakdown, he retreated home to Lancashire. 'I had moved in with a friend because I messaged my parents before I went into hospital, saying never talk to me ever again. Instead they opened their arms. My parents were just phenomenal.' The first imperative was to become clean and sober. He was diagnosed with ADHD and complex PTSD, and gradually rebuilt his life: the first trip into town, getting on a train, taking a driving lesson. But during this period he also rediscovered his craft, channelling his trauma into a memoir and new poems. 'I was a poet all this time but I'd forgotten, essentially. I'm 35 but I almost feel like I'm 21. I have had to learn everything again. In order to be sober, and to get better from PTSD, you sit with the awful emotions that you feel, and you don't drink or take drugs; you get through the day and move on.' He started submitting to magazines, but since the new work was themed around breakdown and recovery, Wallis thought only a few poems would get published. With energy to spare (at least on the good days), he began to imagine what a space specifically for trauma poetry could look like. If poetry saved his life, perhaps it could help others. The idea of The Aftershock Review was born. A poet friend, Anna Percy, had experience of publishing poetry zines in the lively Manchester scene. 'No disrespect to those,' Wallis says. 'I love zines, but I was thinking bigger, nationwide, book-sized.' Rather than photocopying, he started researching printers. Percy and I joined the magazine as contributing editors and sounding boards, and Wallis put the word out for submissions. Work poured in: from poets who were disabled, disadvantaged, ill, excluded in various ways. The reference anthology was Al Alvarez's electrifying The New Poetry, which launched Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton to an enthralled readership; Bloodaxe's Staying Alive series was also hugely admired. 'It's not a pity project,' Wallis insists, calling it 'literature forged from survival'. Established poets were eager to submit, alongside rising stars and unknown writers. Inua Ellams's 'Fuck' poems meld rage, wit and social commentary; Rhian Elizabeth's Amsterdam states baldly 'girl loses her father, girl loses her mind'; Golnoosh Nour's Burnt Divinities celebrates her heritage: 'the glorious / mixture of glitter and garbage'. The Faber poet and Spectator poetry editor Hugo Williams contributed a sardonic and atypical piece, The Art Scene, which mocks glib responses to trauma in contemporary art. 'Max called me up and we had this instant connection,' Williams says. 'He seemed different from the average literary type. This kind of writing seems to me to be improvised on the spot and kept like that. People of my generation work so hard to make it perfect, and you wish they wouldn't!' Aftershock, he observes, represents a jolt to the mainstream. Contributor Pascale Petit agrees, calling it 'a raft to all of us suffering trauma in troubling times. Poetry this open is necessary, and I don't think any other magazine has dared to address our personal ills so candidly.' Gwyneth Lewis, a former national poet of Wales, points out that for ages raw, confessional poetry was looked down on as 'feminine': 'I'm coming out of a long period of reckoning with lifelong maternal emotional abuse and then chronic illness. I find it deeply encouraging [to realise] that I was in the darkness with so many brilliant poets.' In the few months of its existence, Aftershock has made an impact – with sales over £3,000, and 360,000 views on Instagram. A giant billboard on Manchester's Deansgate is seen by thousands daily, and much more is planned for the Aftershock universe: further issues, poetry pamphlets, outreach, events. Perhaps what's so exciting is that it has tapped into the huge energy and enthusiasm for poetry felt by young writers and readers, who recognise it can be a comfort and release. 'Aftershock has given me everything,' Wallis says. 'It's proof that you can take an awful few years and make them into potentially the most astonishing year. Having not wanted to live at all … what it is to choose life over and over again. It's incredible.' The Aftershock Review issue one (£12.99) is available from In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Donald Trump to open resort's second golf course on final day in Scotland
Donald Trump will officially open his new golf course in Aberdeenshire on the final day of his visit to Scotland. The US president's fifth day in Scotland on Tuesday follows a meeting and press conference with Sir Keir Starmer on Monday. Mr Trump will cut the ribbon on a second 18-hole course at his resort in Menie, Aberdeenshire before he flies back to the US on Air Force One. The president has played several rounds of golf during his Scottish trip, teeing off at his other resort in Turnberry, Ayrshire, on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. As they met at Turnberry for bilateral talks on trade and the situation in Gaza, Mr Trump and Sir Keir took part in what proved to be a lengthy press conference, with the president discussing a number of topics. The Republican Party leader spoke of his 'great love' for Scotland and said he wanted to see the nation 'thrive'. He returned to his long-running objections to wind turbines, branding them 'ugly monsters' and speaking of his admiration for North Sea oil and gas. Discussing the war in Ukraine, Mr Trump said he was 'very disappointed' in Russian President Vladimir Putin and suggested he would bring forward a deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire. The US president called Sir Sadiq Khan a 'nasty person', which prompted Sir Keir to come to the defence of his 'friend' the London Mayor. Construction of the new course in Menie began in 2023, with Mr Trump and his son Eric breaking ground on the project. Trump International Scotland claims the two courses will be the 'greatest 36 holes in golf'. The second course is expected to be dedicated to the president's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born on the Isle of Lewis. Critics say the Trump developments in Scotland have not delivered as many jobs as promised and work at the Menie site has caused environmental damage. Mr Trump and Sir Keir landed at Menie aboard Marine One, the president's helicopter, which was seen circling the new course before it touched down on Monday evening. The president then hosted a dinner at Menie with members of his family and guests including Scottish First Minister John Swinney. A demonstration took place in Balmedie, near the resort, on Monday. A small number of protesters sat at the roadside in the centre of the village, surrounded by cardboard signs bearing anti-Trump slogans.
