Susan Hall has been selected by Conservative members to become the party’s mayoral candidate for London.
Pledging to defeat Labour mayor Sadiq Khan, Ms Hall said: “People may sneer and they may underestimate us but we will give everything to the city that has given us so much.
“We have to show that we show the values of everyday Londoners”, she added.
“Those are my values, those are Conservative values, and those are Londoners’ values, but those are not Sadiq Khan’s values”.
She was running against only one other hopeful in the Conservative selection contest, Mozammel Hossain. The narrowed race came after David Cameron’s former special adviser Daniel Korski dropped out of the race.
London Conservative party members ultimately selected Hall over Mr Hossain giving her 57% of the votes.
During the month-long campaign, Ms Hall and Mr Hossain clashed angrily during a hustings debate. She claimed Mr Hossain “doesn’t understand how London works”, while he accused her of publishing “intolerant, hateful” messages on Twitter that he said would lose her support among voters.
Ms Hall, who has been a London assembly member since 2017, will go up against incumbent Sadiq Khan on 2 May.
The result of the ballot of about 20,000 London Conservative members was announced at the Battle of Britain Bunker in Uxbridge by party chairman Greg Hands in front of MPs and supporters.
She told activists: “Together we went from 100/1 odds to me standing before you today – I am truly grateful to you and I am truly grateful for all that you have done”.
“It’s a huge honour to be your candidate to be the mayor of London, thank you, and it leaves me with an important responsibility. I will work tirelessly to defeat Sadiq Khan and offer Londoners the chance they desperately need”.
Ms Hall added: “We have to show that we show the values of everyday Londoners, working hard to provide for your family, being honest about who you are and what you believe, acting selflessly in the interests of others.
“Those are my values, those are Conservative values, and those are Londoners’ values, but those are not Sadiq Khan’s values. He has absolutely no interest in helping others. He only cares about himself.
“He goes on trips to cannabis factories while young people are getting stabbed on our streets. He’s more interested in selling his book… and when things go wrong he hires an army of spin doctors to convince you that it’s not actually his fault.”
She added: “Some newspaper editors think that we have given up, but let me tell you this. I will never give up on London.
“People may sneer and they may underestimate us but we will give everything to the city that has given us so much.
“Colleagues, we can do it, we will defeat him [Mr Khan], and we will deliver the change that Londoners are asking for.”
Ms Hall attracted sizeable support from grassroots Conservatives in race including from prominent MPs such as Paul Scully and Bob Blackman, as well as cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch.
