Ken Livingstone outlines high stakes in Mayoral election
In the final week of campaigning in London's Mayoral election, Ken Livingstone will stress the very high stakes for London on May 1st.
His first campaigning theme will be the huge £39 billion transport investment programme for London in the next 10 years.
Ken Livingstone said:
'In the last four years as Mayor I have secured the largest transport investment programme London has seen for over 50 years. London will spend £39 billion on this over ten years. The first decisive test of the Mayor's ability to run the city in the interest of Londoners is to take the right decisions on this huge programme, which dwarfs all other spending in London.
'In each of the key choices on this the decisions I have taken were proved to be right, while Boris Johnson has supported the wrong one.
'Take the £1.5 billion a year for upgrading the Tube. I fought against the disastrous PPP on the Tube which resulted in the £2 billion loss with the collapse of Metronet. At last Transport for London is going to be able to take over the contracts of Metronet, bring Tube maintenance back into the public sector, and begin serious upgrade of the Tube. Six years late Boris Johnson admitted last week I was right on Metronet. But at the time he described my fight against the PPP as "ideological warfare".
'Last year the government and I were able to negotiate the £16 billion funding for Crossrail. Boris Johnson did not even bother to vote on Crossrail in Parliament. When he wrote about his policies for London in the Financial Times he didn't even mention it - showing he doesn't understand its importance for London. The idea of Boris Johnson in charge of delivering the largest transport project in Europe is a formula for a transport and financial catastrophe.
'The way London's bus system has been changed for the better is envied by cities in the rest of the country. Bus ridership in London is up by two million journeys a day and reliability and quality of service has been transformed. Boris Johnson has incredibly suggested that the system which has destroyed bus ridership in cities in the rest of the country is better than London's. His flagship bus policy for a 'replacement Routemaster with conductors', which he claimed would cost £8 million a year was shown by independent experts to cost more than £100 million a year - requiring a £2 a week increase in bus fares across London.
'These are the biggest financial choices in London and on all of them Boris Johnson supported completely the wrong decision on issues so large they would have hit every Londoner in their wallet or purse.'
Note to editors
Ken Livingstone will today unveil his final week campaign poster with the slogan:
'Imagine Boris Johnson in charge of London's £39 billion transport budget. Suddenly he's not so funny.
Don't risk London - vote Ken'