Ebookers founder Dinesh Dhamija bids to be Liberal Democrat Mayor

Multi-millionaire businessman Dinesh Dhamija has officially thrown his hat into the ring to be the next Mayor of London as a Liberal Democrat.

His announcement comes after the party closed its nominations list on Monday, leaving it with five potential candidates. They include former civil servant Siobhan Benita, who ran as an independent last time around, and Lucy Salek, who fought Lewisham East in the last general election. The other two are yet to be confirmed. The candidate will be picked by the end of November.

The son of an Indian diplomat, Mr Dhamija founded holiday website Ebookers, starting in 1980 with a kiosk inside Earl’s Court Tube station, where he sold flights to Australians who wanted to go home. In 2005 he sold it for £209 million.

Mr Dhamija, who is deputy treasurer of the Liberal Democrats, said that Mayor Sadiq Khan has failed on crime, housing and transport. He told the Standard: “His decision to freeze fares on Tubes and buses has created a TfL deficit. Housing, he promised 90,000 houses a year, he’s delivered 6,000 — so he’s failed there.

“Crime is even worse than in New York. Transport he’s failed, housing he’s failed, crime he’s failed.”

He has vowed that should he become Mayor he would spend money to pay for 2,000 to 3,000 more police officers. He believes the only way to stop knife and moped crime is by recruiting from within London’s troubled communities. “Police need to be recruited from inside the community. If there are three brothers then you want one of the brothers to be in the police.”

Mr Dhamija is now chief executive of Copper Beech Group, a company that manages investments in sustainable projects in Romania and India. He didn’t move into politics until 2014, and in 2016 he was asked by former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron to be an enterprise business adviser.

The Knightsbridge resident’s other major passion is how the capital can better integrate immigrants. He believes all immigrants should be made to learn and speak English.

He said: “The top end is more or less integrated with us, but the bottom end isn’t, and we need is to go deeper in and get them all to integrate. We’re losing out on a lot of talent. By learning English and speaking it in the right way, it makes you much more accepted and you feel like you’re part of the rest of the people.

“Sometimes 50 per cent of communities are isolated from the rest of the capital, especially the women — I’d say that for every community. A lot of women have to do the housework, and have to stay at home.

“We need to get more help and understand what they’re going through. It’s easy for us to overlook this.”