Who is Rob Blackie? Campaigner fighting Russian propaganda in bid to become London mayor
Liberal Democrat candidate Rob Blackie wants to see police focus on investigating sexual assaults rather than crack down on laughing gas.
Wednesday 1 May 2024 08:16, UK
Rob Blackie prides himself on having campaigned in every London borough - and now he has his sights set on leading the whole city.
He is the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London.
A digital marketer by day, he advises start-up tech companies working on challenges from accelerating cancer treatments to tackling climate change.
Here, Sky News looks at Mr Blackie's political background and campaign priorities as he seeks to replace Sadiq Khan.
Party: Liberal Democrats
Campaigning priorities: Focusing police on sexual assault over minor drug offences; making London green
Notable achievements: Founded the award-winning Breaking Putin's Censorship campaign
Saving elephants, fighting fake news, campaigning against Brexit
Mr Blackie spearheaded the Breaking Putin's Censorship campaign, which uses digital advertising to get independent news about Ukraine to people in Russia.
More than 400 million ads have now been shown to Russians and the campaign won at the Drum Awards for social purpose last year.
In the late 1990s, Mr Blackie spent three years working on an elephant conservation project with the Namibian government.
Mr Blackie was a fierce Remain supporter and served as an adviser to anti-Brexit campaign Best for Britain.
Political experience
Mr Blackie is a long-time Lib Dem. His first role with the party was in 1999 and he served as leader Charles Kennedy's director of research during the Iraq War.
He has been part of the Lib Dems' grassroots campaigning since 2000.
In 2012 he was the London Assembly candidate for Lambeth and Southwark and he was the Lib Dem Assembly London-wide list candidate in 2016.
Mr Blackie had been shortlisted to be the party's London mayor candidate before, but this is the first time he has been selected to run.
Read more:
Zoë Garbett, the NHS worker and Green candidate vying for mayor
Who is Howard Cox? Reform UK's London mayoral candidate
Who is Susan Hall, the Tory London mayoral candidate?
Campaigning priorities
Mr Blackie says he wants to stop police "wasting time" on low-level drug offences, such as laughing gas, and use the time to better investigate serious sexual offences.
"Fix the Met" is his number one priority, he says.
Green priorities are also a focus. He's vowed to clean up rivers, get the city's rooftops covered in solar panels and gardens and create a new transport plan for outer London to speed up the move to low carbon transport.
He has pledged to build more homes, fight for renters and pressure national government to abolish residential leasehold.
He also wants to "keep London welcoming" by protecting EU citizens and helping undocumented Londoners.
Cancer diagnosis
Mr Blackie revealed in March he had been successfully treated for cancer at Guy's and St Thomas' cancer centre.
"For those of you interested in the science - I've been having Keytruda, after having a kidney out last year," he wrote on X.
"It's an Immunotherapy which basically turns your immune system up to 11 by taking the gloves off the PD1 (= 'programmable death') receptor.
"In short it makes your immune system more aggressive."
Thanking doctors and scientists for his treatment, he said "apart from regular scans to check that it's worked, it's over".