Putting Londoners first, not just a privileged few

His Tory values mean Boris Johnson’s priorities are wrong. He is for the few, not the many. 

He is campaigning for lower taxes for the richest, demanding a cut to the top rate of tax paid by people earning over £150,000 a year, despite strong public opposition. Liberal Democrat members of the Tory-led government have openly disagreed with Johnson’s stance on the top rate of tax. Boris Johnson himself would personally benefit from this tax cut for those earning over £150,000.

He has called for better treatment for bankers even as he has put up Londoners’ fares year in year out, attacking as “whingeing” public concern over house prices driven by bankers’ bonuses and dismissing concern about the role of bankers as “claptrap.” 

While fares are rising steeply the number of people on six-figure salaries at City Hall under Boris Johnson has nearly doubled in just over three years.  28 staff members in the Greater London Authority earn more than £100,000 compared with just sixteen three years ago. The number of Transport for London staff earning more than £100,000 has risen too. 

When the first stories of phone-hacking were published Boris Johnson rushed to protect his friends in the Conservative party and News International, dismissing the Guardian’s reports as “codswallop” that had been “cooked up by the Labour party.”

Ken Livingstone will put Londoners first by making the case for a fairer alternative, not putting a privileged few first. He will continue to campaign for a VAT cut for ordinary Londoners not a cut in the top rate of tax, and he will make fares fairer.