Tory rivals David Cameron and Boris Johnson unite to back 'man with a plan' Zac Goldsmith
By Ian Silvera
Tory heavyweights Boris Johnson and David Cameron make speeches at a Zac Goldsmith rally on 3 April Getty
David Cameron and Boris Johnson suspended
their EU referendum rivalry to inject some star power into Zac
Goldsmith's campaign to become the next Conservative Mayor of London.
The top Tory duo whipped up an already excited crowd in Goldsmith's
constituency of Richmond, on the eve of the 5 May election.
The prime minister paid tribute to Johnson,
whom he described as an "outstanding" mayor, and warned Londoners would
become "lab rats" under Labour's Sadiq Khan.
"You need an outstanding candidate -
that is what we've got with Zac Goldsmith. He's the right man for the
job, you know that - he delivers for people, he works for people. He's
not in it for the power or the glory, he's in it because he delivers for
local people. That's what he will do for London," Cameron declared.
"Right now the last thing Londoners need is a
tax rise. Zac has said he's going to freeze the council tax, what a
contrast to his opponent who would put up council tax every year."
He added: "This isn't a referendum on one
candidate. This is a choice. You don't need to know everything about
Labour's candidate, you just need to know one fact; he nominated Jeremy
Corbyn to be leader of the Labour Party and he doesn't regret that
choice.
"If you want to be lab rats in Labour's
experiment in London, then you go for the other guy. If you want someone
who's a great candidate, a great man, a man with the right plan, vote
for Zac Goldsmith."
With Goldsmith consistently behind Khan in the opinion polls and the latest survey from Opinium giving the Labour candidate a 14 point lead, Cameron drew on his surprise victory at the General Election to make light of the situation.
"Now you read the opinion polls, I think I'm
someone who can tell you a few things about opinion polls, there is only
one poll that matters - that is the poll on Thursday," he said.
Boris
Johnson, as bombastic as ever, spoke after Cameron. The outgoing Mayor
of London also attempted to link Khan with Corbyn, billing Goldsmith as
the only candidate who can stop the "Corbynistas" from taking back City
Hall for Labour.
"What did those [Ken] Livingstonians, those
Corbynistas do? They tried to get get back in 2012, obviously we
repelled them again. But what did they do? They took over something,
anybody know what they took over? The Labour Party," Johnson told the
Conservative audience.
"The terrible truth is that the Labour
candidate for mayor, Sadiq Khan, has emerged from the Corbynistas, the
Livingstonians, he comes from that strain of political thinking. Do we
want those types of people back in City Hall? There is only one man who
can conceivably stop London lapsing back into the grip of the Labour
Party and that man is Zac Goldsmith."
Johnson finished his speech with a rally cry
to the Tory faithful: "We have 48 hours to keep out the high taxing,
high spending Corbynistas. Do we want our city to be the laboratory, the
Petri dish of Corbynism?"
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