I did a bit of work at City Hall on this very issue when the previous administration opposed London Council’s attempts to get the reserve powers scrapped on the back of the Concessionary Bus Travel Bill – I would hope the coalition of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs who voted down that attempt will do likewise with this one.

Simply because Johnson doesn’t want to use the reserve power, doesn’t mean he should be giving it away – he only has a temporary lease on the powers of Mayor as it is and once the reserve scheme is gone it will never be reclaimed either by himself or his successors. Whatever the words of London Councils about a 5 year guarantee, it doesn’t prevent one borough holding the entire Freedom Pass scheme to ransom because it reckons it is getting a poor deal. The Mayor will now be powerless to force a deal through.

When Livingstone fought the last attempt, he put together a pretty broad coalition of pensioner and disabled groups and trade unions to campaign against it. I would hope the same groups will be equally vociferous this time.