Don’t let top Tories get away with claiming they had nothing to do with Zac’s rancid campaign

Hear that splashing about? That’s the sound of the rats fleeing the ship of the Tory London mayoral campaign. A ship most only abandoned after polls closed last week.

Too much this week we’ve heard about the disgracefulness of “Zac’s campaign”. But this doesn’t need to be more complicated than it is. What people are trying to label as “Zac’s” campaign was the Conservative party’s campaign, from top to bottom.

Tory big guns were rolled onto deck time and time again.

On 1 March Conservative dead-cat-on-table specialist Michael Fallon weighed in, shrieking, “London has witnessed appalling terrorism in the past” (as if we need reminding). “It needs a mayor who will back our police, security services and armed forces all the way”.

On 10 April Theresa May found it within herself to say, “This is not the judgment London needs in a mayor at a time when we face a significant threat from terrorism”. The same Home Secretary who is a senior member of a government which almost immediately confirmed Sadiq Khan will be invited to meetings of the Cobra emergency committee.

On 20 April David Cameron used the occasion of Prime Minister’s Questions to attempt to link Labour’s mayoral candidate to a cleric he claimed was an extremist: “Suliman Gani – the honourable member for Tooting has appeared on a platform with him nine times.” Thus spake the PM in answer to, of course, a question planted by Conservative whips. Gani vigorously denied Cameron’s suggestion he supported terrorism and subsequently won an apology from him.

Former Conservative party co-chair Sayeeda Warsi at least voiced her concerns early, as did former Tory candidate Shazia Awan. But it surely shouldn’t be for Muslims only to have to speak out.

Tim Farron had a go at Prime Minister’s Questions this week, asking Cameron to apologise for the Tories’ “racist” campaign – the second time in recent months that, slightly oddly, a Liberal Democrat has intervened after Labour has been attacked by its opponents.

The Conservatives are not immune to the recent outbreak of political self-harm whereby parties reinforce the worst parts of their reputation. But they had an opportunity in the form of a candidate with potential appeal to centrist and left/green voters to run a positive campaign that won over undecided Londoners.

Instead, Conservatives thought they could stoop to conquer.

Racism remains alive and well – and yes, in London too. Just last week a Labour canvasser in the capital had the Tory slogan from the infamous 1964 Smethwick by-election repeated back to them before the door was slammed in their face. In 2005 – “Are you thinking what we’re thinking?” – and then this year the Conservatives ran slogans with just a nudge-wink-nudge allusion to race and religion.

Let this be the last time we see such a campaign in British politics. But don’t let the Tory party get away with pretending that this was just Goldsmith’s doing. The responsibility is theirs.

Adam Harrison is a Labour councillor. He tweets @AdamDKHarrison