Boris Johnson has been criticised for describing his reported £250,000 salary for writing for the Telegraph newspaper as “chicken feed”.
The Mayor made the comments during an interview on the BBC Hardtalk programme. Shortly after coming to office the Mayor announce he would be giving some of his salary to charity.
The comments are potentially damaging for the Mayor, coming just weeks after a senior aide was forced to resign for misusing his City Hall credit card and Johnson’s own expenses revealed a culture of taking taxis even on short journeys where public transport options were readily available.
Johnson has also had to backtrack on his policy of handing staff “bauble” job titles following a string of negative headlines in the wake of multiple resignations.
During last year’s election campaign access to Johnson was strictly controlled by his campaign team, with access becoming even more difficult after he was overheard telling a voter that the cost of a flagship policy to re-introduce the Routemaster bus could be more than £100m higher than he’d previously claimed.
Laboour member of the London Assembly John Biggs said the Mayor’s comments showed he was “out of touch with reality.”
