When Sadiq Khan appointed a comedian as London’s first-ever ‘Night Tsar’, some thought Labour’s Mayor of London might have been joking.
Just over a decade ago American-born Amy Lamé, described as a ‘glamour puss with a penchant for 1950s styles’, was earning a reported £50 a shift as Danny Baker’s sidekick on BBC London.
Amy also made her name performing successful one-woman shows including Gay Man Trapped in a Lesbian’s Body and setting up the raucous and eclectic Duckie at the Vauxhall Tavern – one of the world’s longest-running LGBTQ+ club nights – where acts have included a stripping dwarf.
In a career where she admits to having done ‘many things’, she is even listed as appearing in a 1995 Lesbian film described as a ‘wacky British sex romp in the Benny Hill tradition (minus the misogyny)’.
But in 2016 after failing to be selected as a Labour MP, Sadiq Khan offered her the job of being London’s first ever Night Tsar after she promised to halt the flow of venue closures in the capital.
And eight years on she remains in the six-figure salary job and still believes the Mayor of London, who calls her his ‘mate’, has given her the ‘best job in the world’.
In that time her pay has gone from just over £80,000 to £116,925 today. Yet in just the past three years alone, 1,100 bars and clubs plus around 100 London pubs annually have shut in the capital.
MailOnline can reveal today that the comedian, writer and broadcaster has taken at least 12 foreign jaunts as part of her Night Tsar role since 2017 – with a significant gap because of the pandemic.
Trips to ‘build partnerships’, study nightlife and attend conferences have taken her to Mumbai , Melbourne and Sydney , Boston, Bologna, Berlin and Paris as well as Tallinn and even Lviv in Ukraine.
Amy Lamé poses in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge where she joined other nightlife tsars last year
![Ms Lamé (right) pictured with the vice mayor of Bologna (centre) and the night mayor of Trento (left) during a trip to Italy](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/13/81722673-13125793-image-a-11_1708952792531.jpg)
Ms Lamé (right) pictured with the vice mayor of Bologna (centre) and the night mayor of Trento (left) during a trip to Italy
![Before the pandemic, Ms Lame went to Lviv in Ukraine as part of her job](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/13/81722685-13125793-image-a-13_1708952806185.jpg)
Before the pandemic, Ms Lame went to Lviv in Ukraine as part of her job
![Amy in Boston in the US when she was invited to be guest speaker at the Harvard European Conference](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/13/81722681-13125793-image-a-9_1708952785297.jpg)
Amy in Boston in the US when she was invited to be guest speaker at the Harvard European Conference
![According to her hospitality register, the trip to Mumbai was to 'create links with India's night time industry and to highlight collaborative way in which London and Mumbai can help each other's night time economy'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/13/81722687-13125793-image-a-12_1708952800266.jpg)
According to her hospitality register, the trip to Mumbai was to ‘create links with India’s night time industry and to highlight collaborative way in which London and Mumbai can help each other’s night time economy’
![The aide to Sadiq Khan gave a keynote speech at the Live Music Summit Copenhagen in 2017](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/13/81722677-13125793-image-a-7_1708952770640.jpg)
The aide to Sadiq Khan gave a keynote speech at the Live Music Summit Copenhagen in 2017
![Ms Lamé has also enjoyed several trips to Paris](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/13/81722679-13125793-image-a-8_1708952777130.jpg)
Ms Lamé has also enjoyed several trips to Paris
![Amy wears a T-Shirt with the Mayor of London's face on it after he was elected. She has been described by Mr Khan as his 'mate'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/13/81725829-13125793-image-m-15_1708953272748.jpg)
Amy wears a T-Shirt with the Mayor of London’s face on it after he was elected. She has been described by Mr Khan as his ‘mate’
Most of Ms Lamé’s trips abroad – which saw her travel to Sydney, Bologna and Madrid in the space of 12 months in 2022 and 2023 – were not paid for by the taxpayer and were instead funded through private donations.
But there have been costs for the taxpayer. According to her expenses, for a trip to Berlin, she claimed for flights and accommodation.
Sadiq Khan’s spokesman has said Lamé is doing important work to help London’s venues and nighttime economy at a time of staff shortages and rising rents.
‘The Night Tsar’s work includes standing up for the 1.3 million Londoners who work evenings and nights to ensure better pay and conditions, protecting hundreds of venues and helping many new ones to open, and creating the groundbreaking Night Time Enterprise Zone programme to boost the capital’s high streets’, the spokesman said.
“Amy is helping to put women’s safety at the heart of more than 2,100 organisations, making licensing easier to navigate, and supporting boroughs to develop nighttime strategies to plan better for all aspects of life at night.”
Ms Lamé and the Mayor of London are ‘mates’.
She has supported and fundraised for Labour and had her own hopes of becoming a MP before landing the plum job at City Hall.
She is also a former mayoress of Camden.
Before her marriage even held her hen night celebrations in Downing Street thanks to her friendship with Gordon Brown’s wife Sarah when her husband was in power.
While New Jersey-born Amy was dubbed Queen of the Night by the New York Times in her native US, not everyone agrees.
Her left-wing politics have caused controversy. When Margaret Thatcher died in 2013 she tweeted: ‘Ding dong the witch is dead’.
In other sweets she also called Ruth Davidson ‘scum’ and accused David Cameron of ‘using his dead son as a pawn’.
In 2020 she was also accused of not declaring £1,000 after hosting a drag event.
In 2022 a petition calling for her to be relieved of her post passed 1,000 signatures.
One critical piece in the NME was titled: ‘London Night Tzar Amy Lamé – what exactly is the point of you?’
53-year-old Ms Lamé’s tenure has been marked by controversy and she has hit the headlines again today after the scale of her globetrotting emerged and her boss was accused of more flagrant wasting of public money.
Her critics have demanded that she should do more to advocate for and protect London’s night culture.
She has defiantly faced down calls to quit and pointed to her role in bring 24-hour services to five Tube lines to help the nighttime economy.
Hitting back in the eye of one storm, she said: ‘If you want a night tsar that will be out partying every night, you’ve got the wrong tsar’.
![The Mayor and his Night Tsar meet the King during the pandemic](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/13/81725825-13125793-image-m-21_1708953482541.jpg)
The Mayor and his Night Tsar meet the King during the pandemic
![Amy Lame with her partner Jennie Hogan in 2017](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/12/81722361-13125793-image-m-3_1708951872842.jpg)
Amy Lame with her partner Jennie Hogan in 2017
![Amy is a feminist and LGBT rights campaigner](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/13/81725823-13125793-image-m-19_1708953407601.jpg)
Amy is a feminist and LGBT rights campaigner
![Amy shared this picture of herself aged 3 on Instagram. She grew up in the US but has lived in the UK for 30 years](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/13/81725827-13125793-image-m-20_1708953440306.jpg)
Amy shared this picture of herself aged 3 on Instagram. She grew up in the US but has lived in the UK for 30 years
Despite the travel and a role serving a city with nearly 9million people, she also finds time for to host a weekly show on BBC Radio 6 and actively campaign for the Labour party.
A few years back she even used her considerable influence as a feminist to force Waitrose to rename a ‘sexist sandwich’. She complained about Heston Blumanthal’s Gentleman’s Smoked Chicken Caesar Roll, forcing the supermarket to apologise.
Amy, a 53-year-old stand-up comedian, broadcaster, writer and Labour activist and feminist who described herself as a ‘chubby white American lesbian’ who arrived in the UK in 1992 to work in a cafe-bar in Soho.
Just 25 years later she was put in charge of rejuvenating night culture in the city and promised to halt the club closures plaguing London.
Just over a decade ago Ms Lamé was also earning a reported £50 a shift as Danny Baker ‘s sidekick on BBC London as well
She also made ends meet with a series of one-woman shows including Gay Man Trapped in a Lesbian’s Body and compering club nights at the legendary Vauxhall Tavern where acts included a stripping dwarf.
While Night Tsar she has published: From Prejudice to Pride: A History of the LGBTQ + Movement’ – billed as the first LGBTQ+ history book for children.
But her biggest achievement has been founding the award-winning Duckie club night at the Vauxhall Tavern in South London – arguably the most historic gay venue in the world. She continues to host nights there.
She also became quite successful on TV after presenting the BBC2 show Gaytime TV and was the mentor for LGBTQ teenagers on Channel 4’s My Big Gay Prom.
She has also appeared on Loose Women and Celebrity Fit Club.
Amy Lamé spoke to the TfL podcast ‘Mind The Gap: Tube 160’ last December.
Describing herself she said: ‘I’ve done so many different things, but I think Night Tsar keeps me pretty busy these days. The Mayor is good at keeping me out of trouble’.
She went on: ‘When I first arrived in London back at the tail end of 1992 and got my very first job at a cafe bar’.
Spoeaking about making London a 24-hour city like New York or Berlin she said: ‘Well, being a Night Tsar, we don’t talk about sleep. I sleep when I have to. But also I am a woman who has always worked at night. My dad worked nights at a car factory in New Jersey. And then he set up his own 24-hour plumbing business.
‘And when the phone rang at 3am, my dad put on his overalls and he was out the door.
‘So I grew up with this idea that working and living was in this 24-hour cycle and that things could be flexible. And that doesn’t mean to say that there weren’t downsides to that in terms of family life and things, but I think that growing up in that situation but also running my nightclub for 27 years’.
Sadiq Khan is facing fresh questions over his public spending habits amid scrutiny of London’s globe-trotting ‘night tsar’ who has been jetting around the world despite more than 1,100 bars and clubs shutting in the capital in just the past three years.
Amy Lamé, the woman put in charge of rejuvenating night culture in the city, has been criticised for travelling to Australia, Italy and Spain while presiding over the decline of London’s nightlife.
City Hall last night insisted the trips were essential to ‘share best practice learn from other cities and build partnerships’.
Industry chiefs and Tories questioned whether she is providing value for money as startling figures show the capital is falling behind cities such as Liverpool and Birmingham.
It came as Mr Khan sparked fury for splurging more than £6million on a woke rebrand of the Overground and a string of other projects including the derided ‘say Maaate’ anti-harassment campaign and the controversial New Year’s Eve fireworks diversity display.
![Amy Lamé, pictured here with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, travelled to Australia, Italy and Spain in the space of 12 months in her role as 'night tsar'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/01/81710307-13124893-image-m-42_1708912783704.jpg)
Amy Lamé, pictured here with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, travelled to Australia, Italy and Spain in the space of 12 months in her role as ‘night tsar’
![Ms Lamé (second left) pictured with night mayors from other countries at a meeting in Sydney](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/02/81710317-13124893-image-a-43_1708912845630.jpg)
Ms Lamé (second left) pictured with night mayors from other countries at a meeting in Sydney
While nightlife in many cities is struggling to bounce back following the pandemic and is now suffering a double hit with the cost of living crisis, the decline has been more marked in the capital than elsewhere.
Figures from Square-Up, a firm which processes payments for businesses, said that in terms of the sheer number of transactions Liverpool and Birmingham have now overtaken London.
One survey found that 1,165 venues have closed in London since pandemic, and the head of one industry body says that while all cities in Britain are facing issues, Ms Lamé has to answer for London’s poor performance.
Michael Knill, the CEO of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), told The Times that he believes that while the ‘night tsar’ has to oversee all 32 boroughs of London – a job that is far greater than others in her position elsewhere – there are still questions that need answering.
He said: ‘There is a big difference between signposting and virtue signalling and driving tangible change. We see a lot of announcements but not so many results.’
He claimed ‘the industry feels there hasn’t been a strong enough voice for us’ and that while there have been worthwhile initiatives such as the women’s night safety charter, more is needed.
However, they have still raised questions about whether they are a good use of her time, with Mr Knill saying ‘we have got such economic pressures at home, people in the industry are saying, ‘Why are you there when you should be here?”
Peter Fortune, Conservative London Assembly member for Bexley and Bromley, told the publication he was not necessarily against Ms Lamé travelling abroad to promote the city.
He said: ‘But I want to see outcomes as a result of those trips. What’s happened as a result of Australia, of Bologna? Where’s the bang for the buck?’
![The trips taken by Ms Lamé, who also works as a presenter for BBC Radio 6, were funded through private donations](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/02/81710795-13124893-image-a-58_1708913659539.jpg)
The trips taken by Ms Lamé, who also works as a presenter for BBC Radio 6, were funded through private donations
![Ms Lamé took up the role of London's night tsar in 2016 and since then has seen her salary rise from £80,000 to £116,925](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/26/02/81710321-13124893-image-a-51_1708913168496.jpg)
Ms Lamé took up the role of London’s night tsar in 2016 and since then has seen her salary rise from £80,000 to £116,925
A spokesperson for Mr Khan said figures from UKHospitality showed revenue in London’s hospitality sector had risen by £3billion to £46billion in four years. They claims live music and hospitality ‘defied all expectations’ last year.
The Mayor has come under criticism in recent weeks for what is seen by some as ‘misplaced priorities’ when spending taxpayers money.
Earlier this month travellers slammed Mr Khan for spending £6.3million from the Greater London Authority budget on renaming and recolouring all six London Overground lines.
The majority of the money went on updating customer information, such as redesigning and redisplaying maps across all Tube and London Overground stations, and issuing new versions in print and online.
There was scorn from some quarters as the names – Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty – were revealed, with Khan himself admitting ‘not everybody is going to be happy’.
In January a report compiled by the Conservatives accused the Mayor of wasting £123million of taxpayers money, a sum disputed by sources within his own team.
Tories in the London Assembly said Khan was wasting millions of pounds on ‘spin doctors, marketing and pointless initiatives’.
This includes £10million on five-day workshops for the Met Police and staff which had a test to ‘determine the colour’ of their personalities, almost £1million on ‘beach parties’ and £500,000 on free advertising for a vaginal moisturising company.
Transport for London paid £115,275 to DNCO for five months of ‘naming research’, MailOnline revealed.
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