Laurence Fox launches his campaign for London Mayor by urging Boris Johnson to speed up lifting lockdown as he shouts ‘open up the country BoJo – data not dates mate’ while …

Laurence Fox has promised to ‘unlock London’ and help people ‘reclaim their freedom’ as he launched his bid to become the city’s mayor.

The 42-year-old actor told a crowd in Westminster that Mayor Sadiq Khan ‘Khan’t’ be trusted to take the capital out of lockdown, saying he would end it in May if elected.

Mr Fox is standing as a candidate for the Reclaim Party that he set up last year to fight the ‘culture wars’ taking place in Britain.

He has pledged to erect hundreds more statues of military heroes across London and has said he will refuse to take a Covid vaccine until 2023. 

His campaign will be completely funded by a donation from ex-Tory political donor Jeremy Hosking.

Arriving on a ‘Free London’ branded battle bus, Mr Fox said: ‘I am not a politician. I never wanted to be a politician,’ before quipping that he ‘used’ to be an actor. 

Laurence Fox told a crowd in Westminster that he wanted to ‘reclaim your freedom’ and promised to ‘unlock London now’ if elected London mayor

Arriving on a ‘Free London’ branded battle bus, Fox said: ‘I am not a politician. I never wanted to be a politician. I am a single father and I am an actor, well I was an actor’

Mr Fox is standing as a candidate for the Reclaim Party that he set up last year to fight the ‘culture wars’ taking place in Britain

‘We are here to reclaim your freedom and we need to unlock London now.

‘Someone needs to unlock London now, and I can tell you one thing: Sadiq Khant. And Sadiq Won’t. Sadiq Khan is ashamed to be British.’

An ardent opponent to the national lockdown, he will stand against Sadiq Khan in the 2021 London mayoral elections, which will be held on May 6. 

He added: ‘Freedom of speech is under threat in the cathedral of wokery that is London.’

Despite polling somewhat behind Mr Khan’s closest rival Shaun Bailey, Mr Fox said he is ‘in it to win it, you don’t get a medal for coming second… you do at school egg and spoon races.’

After making his stump speech, Mr Fox took a pool of journalists on an open-top bus tour of London, seeing sights including Downing Street and Nelson’s Column

Fox is standing as a candidate for the Reclaim Party that he set up last year to fight the ‘culture wars’ taking place in Britain

Jeremy Hosking: Fox’s sole Reclaim Party backer

Ranked number 351 on the Sunday Times Rich List with a net worth of £375 million, Jeremy Hosking has been a prominent political donor for much of the last decade.

Originally a long time Conservative Party donor, financier Hosking caused a stir when he made a £200,000 donation to Nigel Farage’s surging Brexit Party ahead of the 2019 European elections.

The move was seen as a signal of growing discontent for Hosking over the handling of Brexit, who described Mr Farage as ‘the only person in a leadership position who has been telling us the truth for 25 years’.

Coming from a background of asset management, Hosking owns a major share of Crystal Palace Football Club as well as in FlyBe and some heritage railways, of which he is a noted enthusiast.

In an interview with The Telegraph unveiling his new party, Laurence Fox revealed that Hosking had provided £5million in funding that could take the party ‘to the next general election’.

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Mr Fox’s policies have centred mainly around fighting the ‘culture wars’ he says are attacking London.

Following attempts to topple several statues in the capital, as well as a debate over Lord Nelson’s place in Trafalgar Square, Mr Fox came out ardently in favour of protecting statues and has since said he would to erect hundreds more.

‘As Mayor of London, I want to honour the heroes who have contributed above and beyond the call of duty for our nation,’ he wrote in the Express.

‘If elected, every winner of the Victoria Cross or George Cross will be honoured by having a plaque placed on the street that they were born.’

He added that each hero would get a state in a Park of London Heroes next to Horseguards’ Parade.

Mr Fox has also been a strong opponent to the lockdown and has been criticised for skepticism of vaccines.

Today he confirmed that he will refuse the vaccine until after 2023, when he claims clinical trials will be concluded.

‘It’s not going to do me any harm [not having it]. I think people should do what they want with their own bodies in terms of vaccinations. It should be private, like voting,’ he told Guido Fawkes.

Reform UK’s Richard Tice and Martín Daubney were also at the launch, according to the Guido Fawkes.

It is understood Fox has made a deal for Mr Tice to support him during the campaign rather than standing a separate candidate against Sadiq Khan, and Mr Tice will stand for London Assembly.

Shortly after the launch, Mr Khan unveiled his own ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ pledge to spend £32m on employment assistance as part of his re-election campaign.

Speaking outside the Savoy Hotel, the mayor said the election is ‘a two-horse race’ and asked Londoners to ‘lend me their vote so we can focus on jobs, jobs, jobs’.

‘These new training academies will play a key role in helping Londoners get into good quality and well-paid jobs in the future,’ he added.

Last week an Opinium/Evening Standard poll last week showed Khan with 53 per cent of the vote and a 25-point lead over Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey.

This puts the mayor on track to produce the largest ever landslide victory for a London mayor election.

Lib-Dem candidate Luisa Porritt and the Green’s Sian Berry each received 7 per cent, ahead of UKIP’s Peter Gammons on 2 per cent and Women’s Equality Party candidate Mandu Reid on 1 per cent.

Two per cent of respondents selected ‘another candidate’ which includes Mr Fox.

It comes after Mr Fox’s outspoken views on lockdown saw him receive a visit from police who warned his campaigning may be ‘breaking Covid rules’. 

Shortly after Mr Fox’s Reclaim launch, Mr Khan unveiled his own ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ pledge to spend £32m on employment assistance as part of his re-election campaign

Last week an Opinium/Evening Standard poll last week showed Khan with 53 per cent of the vote and a 25-point lead over Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey

Mr Fox, who starred in the ITV series Lewis, is seeking legal advice two Metropolitan Police officers confronted him on his doorstep in Lambeth, south London yesterday and told him to be mindful of current lockdown laws.

In a video of the exchange shared by Mr Fox on Twitter, the police said he had been reported for breaking rules while campaigning. However, they admitted that they had ‘no evidence per se’ to support the complaint.

Mr Fox, who launched the anti-woke Reclaim party to fight the ‘culture wars’ slammed the Met’s ‘mild intimidation’ and has revealed he is taking legal advice.

Laurence Fox is seen attending an anti-lockdown rally in Hyde Park, London on March 20, 2021

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, the actor accused the force of investigating a ‘non-crime’ and said he has ‘lots of questions’ for Scotland Yard.  

‘I actually felt quite sorry for the police officer I filmed,’ Mr Fox told this publication. ‘He clearly didn’t know why he was there. No one did.

‘The police have been put in an impossible position, enforcing these sorts of rules and investigating non-crimes reported by anonymous snitches.

‘I am in the process of consulting legal advice on the incident. We have lots of questions for the Met over what happened and why.’

Mr Fox called the incident ‘a very worrying thing in a democratic society’. He added: ‘We do not live in North Korea or China. We live in Great Britain.’

London mayor race: What are Laurence Fox’s policies? 

Freedom to work

Freedom to move

Freedom to speak

On policing:

On women’s rights:

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