Could Brian Rose be London’s next mayor?

Brian Rose is as well-kempt over Zoom as he is on his billboards which loom over London and decry his policies; tablets of stone for 2021.

“How did they look? I didn’t love the picture of myself,” he asks.

If Rose is occupied with his image on these billboard, it’s for good reason. He is one of 20 candidates who on May 6 hope to beat the competition and be elected as the next mayor of London.

“I couldn’t stand by and watch the current mayor run this city into the ground. That’s why I decided to stand,” he says.

But because of his unorthodox campaigning style – which includes broadcasting clips from his “battle bus”, and dress sense – which has caused him to be compared on social media to a James Bond villain – he has been subject to more mockery than serious consideration thus far in his campaign. But this doesn’t phase Rose:

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“I’ve been used to criticism for a long time. The suit is a funny thing because I didn’t always dress like this. If you look at the early episodes of London Real (his YouTube channel), I’m wearing G-Star Raw, combat trousers and skateboard T-shirts.”

This changed, though, because Rose “wanted to show up and show the world that I’m ready to do business.”

If there is something Rose can probably do, it’s business. He worked as a banker for years before packing it in to start his YouTube channel, which has almost 2 million subscribers and features interviews with a range of people including actor John Cleese and controversial conspiracy theorist David Icke (more on him later).

This background in business unapologetically shapes his approach to politics.

“I look at everything through the lens of business. The other candidates I don’t think have ever run a company in their lives, he says, as well as:

“The economy is a shambles right now and I don’t trust him [Sadiq Khan] to bring it back”, and:

“I know how we can run TFL at a profit.”

But Rose’s actual politics can be hard to pin down. He admits he has voted for the Democrats and the Republicans in the past and that he hasn’t voted in recent UK elections.

“If you looked at my policies you might say I’m centre-right but it’s hard to really pinpoint where I am.”

One thing Rose is keen on though is increasing the police presence in the nation’s capital. But recent debates around the policing of the Sarah Everard vigil and ‘Kill the Bill’ protests could make this pledge contentious. What does Rose make of that?

“The vigil should have been allowed to happen but Sadiq Khan sold out the police on social media before he found out what really happened,” he says.

He adds he has spoken to police officers who criticised Khan for not standing up for the police.

“I think they just did an independent review and found that – I didn’t read the details but I saw the headlines and I thought that they said they acted reasonably. I saw the footage and I was alarmed but I was also reading later that some of that was agitators that came on and created these moments.”

Another flagship policy is far cheerier: creating a month long event called “the great celebration” which will take place in August with 31 days of street fairs and festivals.

“It will show the world that we’re back and show off the best of London art, culture, technology, innovation and its indomitable spirit,” he says.

And no coronavirus pandemic will quell his enthusiasm:

“We can make this happen in a safe manner. It’s all about having that mayor who’s a leader who can have that vision.”

Speaking of Covid, Rose is critical of lockdowns and says the hospitality and gym sector should have remained open. Though what he would have done instead to reduce cases is unclear:

“I think we should protect the elderly, but I still think there are better ways to get London back to work. I would have found a way to protect those that are vulnerable but find a way to get healthy people back to work.”

“There are better solutions,” he adds mysteriously.

Rose has witnessed the consequences of breaking the lockdown rules first hand. January, he and his team were fined for campaigning outside. But Rose says this fine was a political move to silence him and that it hasn’t stopped him.

“If we can’t campaign, democracy is not being honoured,” he claims.

He also doesn’t regret interviewing David Icke - who has claimed coronavirus is linked to 5G and has also been accused of antisemitism - on freedom of speech grounds:

“As long as I’m putting out content that’s not trying to harm people, that doesn’t violate laws, doesn’t invite violence and doesn’t incite political overthrow, I think that every adult can listen to any ideas they want and then make their own decisions.

But with around two months until Londoners cast their votes, and Khan enjoying a 26-point lead ahead of the Conservative Party’s Shaun Bailey, is Rose concerned about his chances?

Brian Rose’s ‘Battle Bus’

“I’m expecting to pull of the biggest upset in British political history,” he says.

“Polls are a 20^th century instrument trying to monitor a 21^st century phenomenon.

“When I look at online data and odds data, I’m actually leading in polls and when I talk to people on the street 98% say they are going to vote for me. I can’t even say a word before they tell me how much they hate Sadiq Khan and say they want him out of office.”

And if he does lose?

“I’m not entertaining that vision because we can win this,” he says.

That’s that then.