News from London Assembly Labour

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.

“The record fare rises are a result of his foolish decisions. If Boris Johnson hadn’t personally chosen to scrap a large part of London’s bus fleet – and scrap the western extension of the congestion zone – he could have kept fares down, as Labour would have done.

“The headline figures of above-inflation and bus fare increases of 12.7 per cent and tube fare increases of 3.9 per cent mask the really big pain that’s hitting bus and tube users today.

The twenty per cent rise on single journeys and the cost of a weekly bus pass, and the squeeze on many outer London tube users who will have to pay eighteen per cent more in single fares will hit people hard.

“It is the same unfair treatment David Cameron would impose – painful cuts and austerity for the many, and tax breaks for the privileged few.

“Hard-pressed bus and tube users across London are forced to pay Boris’s bombshell fare rises, while David Cameron plans to hand a £200,000 tax giveaway to the wealthiest 3,000 estates in Britain.

“It’s no change from the Tories.”

Other news from London Assembly Labour

• Ken: "This morning's tube delays are completely unacceptable" - 10 February 2012
• Boris Johnson's comments are ill-judged and offensive - 9 February 2012
• Ken answers his critics about his support for LGBT rights - 8 February 2012