I am disappointed with Sadiq. I am furious with him

Mayoral candidate Natalie Campbell tells Ross Lydall about working for the royals, class in London and what the capital needs

NATALIE CAMPBELL is angry. "Bloody pissed off," in fact. She's taken out a £25,000 loan in a bid to become Mayor of London, but is struggling to get her message across to Londoners. She wasn't invited to ITV London's prime-time hustings event last week. Nor to BBC London's, nor LBC's, nor transport hustings, nor a prominent business event which ended up being cancelled because neither Tory Susan Hall or Sadiq Khan would appear.

"Maybe I was naïve," she says. "Genuinely I believed I would be invited to hustings. I was not even told about the ITV debate. Respect should be shown to all the candidates who have done the work to get on the ballot [paper]. They should at least be given a reason why you are not invited." London mayoral candidates have to pay a £10,000 deposit which is returned if they win at least five per cent of the votes-and gather the signatures of 10 registered voters from each of the capital's 33 boroughs.

Thirteen people will contest the mayoral elections on May 2. But YouTuber Niko Omilana and actor-turned-antiwork campaigner Laurence Fox-who came fifth and sixth in 2021 - both fell foul of the rules and had their applications rejected.

Ms Campbell, 40, a "social entrepreneur", joint chief executive of environmental drinks firm Belu Water and University of Westminster chancellor, also nearly fell at the final hurdle.

Having submitted her application early, she was warned by London Elects, the organisation that runs the election, that two of her signatories were not registered voters. Student interns were dispatched to Heathrow and Camden in the final weekend before the deadline to find more backers.

"It took three weeks to get the 330 signatures," she said. "We were knocking on doors, we were standing in streets.