Mayor still refuses to act against banned councillor

Labour respond to reports that Mayor Boris Johnson has written to his disgraced fire authority deputy, Bertha Joseph, for further clarification but STILL refuses to sack her.

Labour’s leader at City Hall, Len Duvall, said: “Boris has known about this since October, if not before. You have to wonder why it’s taking him so long to decide whether someone who spent money intended for children’s charities on ball gowns for herself is not fit for office? I understand Boris’s reluctance to lose yet another appointment in sleazy circumstances but it’s time he did the right thing and removed this councillor from his administration.”

Bertha Joseph was found to have brought her office into disrepute by Brent council on 13 October 2009. She appealed and, as her appeal was on-going, was appointed by City Hall to the position of deputy chair of London’s Fire and Emergency Planning Authority – a position for which she receives £19,000 in allowances. Councillor Joseph lost her appeal on 9 February – almost one month ago – and was suspended from the council for six months.

Banned councillor: London Labour leader calls on Mayor to act

Len Duvall, Labour’s leader on the London Assembly, has called on Boris Johnson to remove disgraced councillor Bertha Joseph from London’s fire authority. Under questioning today the Mayor again refused to take any action against councillor Joseph despite her being banned from office in Brent for six months.

Bertha Joseph was found in October to have brought her office into disrepute after spending almost £1,000 of charitable donations on clothes for herself. Her appeal was rejected by a tribunal over two weeks ago. But Mayor Boris Johnson has so far refused to act, saying this morning he needed to take legal advice.

Len Duvall said: “This is a question of the Mayor’s judgement, morals and integrity. Whlie his party leader claims he wants to clean up politics, Boris Johnson has presided over a long line of discredited and sleazy appointments.

Boris’s broken promise “a huge blow to the Tories’ plans for elected police commissioners”

Today is the London Assembly confirmation hearing for Kit Malthouse as chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority. Labour will be pressing its concerns over the direction of policing.
Former policing minister Tony McNulty MP told Labour Matters:
“Boris Johnson’s appointment of Kit Malthouse is both a broken promise on his key pledge to take this [...]

Labour demands to know London fire stations facing Tory axe

Boris Johnson’s appointee to run the fire authority, Tory Assembly Member Brian Coleman, today refused to rule out any fire station closures.
Labour’s Val Shawcross AM, said: “The Chair of the fire authority ought to be able to reassure Londoners that there is no question-mark over the future of any of our fire stations and [...]

Police cut as Boris Johnson refuses to guarantee local police teams

London’s popular local police teams are under threat after Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson refused to guarantee their future based on a minimum of six team members in each neighbourhood. The current core of the teams, which are dedicated to policing in each of London’s wards, is one sergeant, two constables and three police community support officers (PCSOs). Some wards in London have been enhanced above this base.

Pressed by Labour’s London Assembly member Joanne McCartney AM on whether he would guarantee the future of the police teams based on the core current deployment of six he refused to do so, saying:
“These will be matters for the commissioner, for the borough commanders to work out and I have no intention of imposing a one size fits all model across the whole of London. I think that would be a pointless piece of top-downery.”

Labour’s Karen Buck MP, who raised the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions today, said:

“High visibility police patrols are the public’s number one priority for reassurance and crime prevention and Boris Johnson’s failure to guarantee the current strength and deployment of our dedicated Safer Neighourhood Teams shows he is out of touch with what Londoners want.

Labour vote to block Boris’s police cuts

Labour on the London Assembly will today vote against Boris Johnson’s plans to axe Met police officers.

The London Assembly will vote on Boris Johnson’s final £14 billion budget at City Hall tomorrow. The Mayor proposes to cut 455 police officers by the end of his first term in office.

Labour have proposed reversing the Mayor’s plans to cut police officers by reducing the Met’s publicity budget. In his manifesto Boris Johnson promised to reduce the Met’s press staff from 73 to 50 but has actually increased it to 74.

John Biggs, Labour’s budget spokesman and deputy leader on the Assembly, said the Mayor’s budget and his decision to resign the MPA Chair showed a lack of commitment to policing in London.

John Biggs said: “Boris was elected on a manifesto of leading and protecting the police but he is planning to cut almost 500 officers and is slashing their funding.

Anger after Boris admits London is closed for business in India

In response to questions by Labour Member of the London Assembly Murad Qureshi, Mayor Boris Johnson has admitted that the London Development Agency’s offices in India, established by his predecessor Ken Livingstone to promote London’s interests in one of the world’s most important developing economies, are no longer functioning.

According to the Mayor, “the LDA’s representatives in Mumbai and Delhi resigned last year and have not yet been replaced”, pending a review that will decide whether the offices should be reopened.

Murad Qureshi AM said: “It is quite disgraceful that the closure of the GLA’s offices in India has been carried out by the back door, without Londoners being informed about the decision to mothball them.

“Developing economies like India’s have grown in global importance due to their having escaped the worst consequences of the recession. It is vital that London’s businesses are properly represented there.”

Labour would reverse Boris’s fare rises and protect police numbers

Labour on the London Assembly will today call on Boris Johnson to reverse his bus fare rises and police officer cuts as part of their alternative budget proposals.

John Biggs, Labour’s budget spokesman and deputy leader on the Assembly, said the alternative budget represented the interests of the “majority of hard-working Londoners”, in contrast to the Mayor’s proposals. Labour will also propose: additional funding for rape crisis centres, reversing Boris Johnson’s road safety cuts and funding for a new festival to celebrate London’s diversity to replace Rise – cancelled last year by the Conservative Mayor.

Labour’s bus fare reverse would be partly funded by retaining the western extension of the congestion charge and cutting the bonuses of TfL managers.TfL figures show that the income TfL stand to lose over the next three years from scrapping the western extension of the congestion charge is broadly in line with the amount being raised from January’s bus fare rises.

Boris claims credit for new housing started by Labour

Despite failing to deliver his key election pledge on housing, Conservative Mayor of London Boris Johnson today attempts to claim credit for new homes projects started by Labour.

Commenting on Boris Johnson’s visit to a housing project in Labour-run Greenwich this morning and his claim that he has delivered 20,000 affordable homes across London since becoming Mayor, Labour’s housing spokesperson on the London Assembly, NICKY GAVRON said:

“You almost have to admire Boris’s chutzpah in taking credit for homes he has had nothing to do with. These were started long before he was in City Hall and if he had been in charge with the policies he has you can guarantee they wouldn’t have happened.”

Housing and Planning Minister JOHN HEALEY said:

“At a time when London’s need for new affordable homes has never been higher, the truth is the Mayor wants to cut back.

Boris Johnson’s back-to-work hangover for London

Speaking ahead of joining London Assembly members and others campaigning against Boris Johnson’s record bus and tube fare increases, Labour MP Karen Buck said:

“Thousands of hard-pressed commuters will today suffer a new year fares hangover imposed by Boris Johnson.

“London is paying the price of the Conservative Mayor’s foolish decisions.

“Today’s twenty per cent increase in the price of a single bus journey means that under Boris Johnson the basic bus fare has soared by a staggering one-third since he became Mayor of London less than two years ago.

“To get elected, Boris Johnson promised to ‘put commuters first’ and he even argued that fares were too high.

“But he has broken his promise and instead of helping Londoners get through the recession, he is targetting those who rely on buses and tubes for particularly painful and unfair rises.