Conservatives walked out of a City Hall meeting on Thursday in protest at what they called “left-wing wokery”.
The walk-out took place during a meeting of the London Assembly’s environment committee, as members were about to question a panel of three experts about Sir Sadiq Khan’s plans to create “swimmable rivers” across the capital.
Tory members Keith Prince and Thomas Turrell said they objected to the committee’s Green Party chairman, Zack Polanski, refusing to allow a representative from Bromley Council to join the panel, because he is a man.
Mr Polanski was against having an all-male panel, as the panel’s two other speakers were men. The panel’s third place was instead filled by Lewisham Council’s female cabinet member for the environment, Louise Krupski.
Zack Polanski, Green member of the London Assembly.
Credit: London Assembly
But the Conservatives claimed that this meant outer London was “under-represented” in the discussion. This was despite the fact that one of the panel’s other speakers was Paul Powlesland, founder of the River Roding Trust – which is an outer London waterway. The Ravensbourne and Lea rivers, both of which flow through outer London too, also featured in the panel’s discussion.
Mr Turrell, who represents Bexley and Bromley on the Assembly, said outer London councils are “significantly under-funded compared to their inner London alternatives, and due to their rural nature, face more unique challenges in maintaining the rivers”.
He added: “We wanted an outer London council rep on the panel. Instead, the chair decided to invite an inner London council rep and decided to exclude Bromley Council, who we were originally engaging with, because of the gender of the speaker they were going to send.
“Keith and I are fed up with seeing outer London under-represented on committee panels.”
Mr Polanski – who is deputy leader of the Green Party nationally – is understood to have given “clear instructions” to the Assembly’s staff that, as committee chairman, he wanted a gender-balanced panel.
He took the decision to invite Ms Krupski after being told by staff that Lewisham Council was offering to send a woman representative, and Bromley Council was offering to send a man.
Bromley is also understood to have been separately invited to submit written evidence to the committee, if it wishes.
Mr Prince, assembly member for Havering and Redbridge, said: “This is just yet another classic example of left-wing wokery. We’ve had enough and we’re not going to put up with it.
“We’re not going to put up with the wokery, we’re not going to put up with all this virtue-signalling. We need to make a stand.”
He added that the “excuse” of needing to have a gender-balanced panel was “just pathetic”.