Labour claim fare rises under Johnson’s Mayoralty “could be part of a secret Tory deal which is making Londoners pick up the bill for the government’s national transport budget.”
Government funding for Transport for London has been cut in recent years.
Livingstone was joined by Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry as well as his puppy Coco as he and supporters embarked on a search for “Boris Johnson’s secret fares plan”.
During a trip across London Livingstone explained his own promised fares cut to Londoners.
Rivals have questioned his ability to fund the cut which Mr Johnson says would impact on investment.
Livingstone commented: “There are just two days before the Mayoral election. Londoners have a right to know how much the Tory Mayor intends to increase their bus, tube, tram and train fares.
“We need answers now. Today I have written to Tory Transport Secretary, Justine Greening to ask her to release details of all discussions between her and her government and Boris Johnson’s administration about increasing the burden on fare payers and cutting government investment in transport.”
Livingstone has also used the issue of fares to try and persuade Liberal Democrat voters to give him their second preference votes in Thursday’s election.
When voting for Mayor Londoners are able to cast one vote for their first preference candidate and one vote for their second preference.
If no candidate secures more than 50% of the first preference votes the two highest scoring candidates go through to a second round and all second preference votes allocated to the candidate they were cast for.
The candidate with the highest number of first and second preference votes is then elected Mayor.
Livingstone has emailed Londoners who identify themselves on the doorstep as LibDem supporters.
The email follows comments posted on Twitter by LibDem councillor and London Assembly candidate Stephen Knight who yesterday said: “Not sure about today’s YouGov poll, but this Lib Dem’s second preference vote certainly isn’t going to the Tories! #sackboris”
In the email Livingstone tells LibDem supporters: “The Conservative candidate, Boris Johnson, is the only one of the main candidates not calling for a fares cut. If you want to see a fairer London where we help people in hard times then you need to use your vote carefully to make sure the Tories don’t get away with it this week.”
Livingstone has previously promised to give Liberal Democrat London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon a role in his administration if elected.
Candidates for Mayor include Jenny Jones (Green party), Ken Livingstone (Labour), Lawrence Webb (UKIP) Boris Johnson (Conservative) and Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrat). A full list of candidates can be found here.
Candidates standing as London Assembly constituency members can be found here. Candidates for the 11 Assembly London-wide seats can be found here.
Damian Hockney says
May 1, 2012 at 2:51 pmIs this going to be the first London Mayor election in which voters start to understand in great enough numbers the power of the second vote? Firstly it depends upon the numbers who actually vote, but vitally indeed it depends upon whether those who would incline to vote LibDem (and to some extent Green and UKIP) really do grasp the power of the second vote. It is difficult to stress enough how intelligent and successful people you speak to (who are busy and think one is mad for being interested in politics) tell you a garbled and completely inaccurate version of the voting system which indicates that (if they have a view), they often still do not vote for the candidate they ideally want (“I don’t want to waste my vote putting him/her first). Shouldn’t we consider going over the the French system, with a run-off? Well at least consider it…
Martin Hoscik says
May 1, 2012 at 2:54 pmI’m all in favour of a run off and having the Assembly election a year later. Won’t happen though!