The union has written to Mr Johnson’s campaign calling for the withdrawal of posters it said portrays Mr Crow “as part of a corrupt group of cronies under the control of Labour mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone.”
In a statement the union said: “Our opinion is that this poster falsely portrays Bob Crow and RMT as part of some corrupt, venal, scandalous and wasteful group of cronies associated with Ken Livingstone.
“It also seems to portray Bob Crow and RMT as supporters of Ken Livingstone when the truth is that Bob Crow has not supported Mr Livingstone’s campaign as a Labour Candidate for Mayor, is not a member or supporter of the Labour Party and RMT is not affiliated to the Labour Party.”
An RMT spokesman added: “As General Secretary of RMT Bob Crow is wholly engaged in his duties in representing the interests of RMT members. The allegations contained in this poster infer that that is not the case and it has a negative impact upon Bob Crow’s reputation among both his membership and with the public at large.”
On Wednesday Mr Johnson’s campaign published an extract from its response to Mr Crow’s solicitors.
It also released the following statement: “We will not be silenced. It is all about free speech. So that we can show the risk to London of Ken and his cronies returning to City Hall we are setting up a fighting fund to defend against threatened legal action from Bob Crow.
“We urge all fair minded Londoners who find Ken Livingstone’s cosy relationship with the Union bosses who are bankrolling his campaign as unacceptable to lend us their support.”
Candidates for Mayor include Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrat), Jenny Jones (Green party), Ken Livingstone (Labour), Lawrence Webb (UKIP) and Boris Johnson (Conservative).
Helen says
Johnson’s election campaign, bankrolled by multi-millionaires, is asking members of the public for handouts?
Stanley Fink, for instance, has donated obscene amounts of money to the Tories and to Boris – go and beg to him.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/mayor/millionaire-will-double-boris-fund-gift-if-he-likes-manifesto-7545424.html
ASLEF shrugged says
Ken’s links with the unions are the same as any Labour politician; the Labour Party was created by the unions and continues to receive political and financial support from them. The RMT were kicked out of Labour in 2004 and while they supported Ken when he ran as an independent they backed Respect/SWP/Left List candidate Lindsey German after he rejoined Labour.
His “cosy relationship” with the RMT saw 16 days of strikes (if memory serves) in his 8 years in office but unlike Boris he managed to avoid strikes by ASLEF (who hadn’t been out for about ten years) and TSSA (who hadn’t walked out since the General Strike when they were known as the RCA).
The Real Looney Left haven’t bothered fielding a candidate this year perhaps realising that it was a waste of money that could be better spent where it might do some good (hello UKIP, BNP, EDP, Monster Raving Loony, etc) and when RMT offered financial backing to Ken he told them where to stick it.
Mr James says
The last paragraph should have read : ” We Urge all fair minded Londoners who find Boris Johnson’s cozy relationship with the Tory Party and their political donors who are bank rolling Policy Change as unacceptable to lend Ken Livingstone your support “.
Why is Boris Johnson even bothering to go begging of Londoners when he recieves a healthy salary and of course he could donate his £250.000 Chicken Feed salary that he claims only takes him one and a half hours a week to write over one year, if thats money for nothing he should throw that into the pot. With all the millionaires in the cabinet office im sure Boris does not have to really brain wash and con Londoners into parting with their hard earned money that is not Chicken Feed !
Better still all Boris has to do is have a quiet word with Cameron and maybe he can put Boris in contact with a few people that are willing to donate towards this Legal Fund for something in return.