A rant about rent controls by London Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan appears to have backfired.

Khan – who has repeatedly demanded that the government grant him the power to impose rent controls – took to Twitter to retweet a message from the London Renters Union.

Khan added to the message by tweeting: “Times are incredibly tough. The last thing Londoners need is the constant threat of losing their home due to skyrocketing rents. I will not stop calling on the Govt to do the right thing and grant me the powers to freeze London rents.”

But of the hundreds of comments left below his tweet, very few echoed his remarks.

Instead the overwhelming majority were critical of Khan’s postures on both rent controls and his so-called ULEZ scheme.

ULEZ is the Ultra Low Emission Zone which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year, except Christmas Day. 

The zone currently covers all areas within the North and South Circular Roads but Khan is proposing a dramatic expansion of the ULEZ zone, which has prompted vast numbers of complaints from the public.

Those complaints dominated the comments at the end of Khan’s rent control tweet, and many of the comments that were about housing were actually opposed to his call for caps.