Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has given the clearest indication yet that he’s not about to abandon London politics with a carefully timed intervention on the future of the Freedom Pass.
As Assembly Members prepare to question new Mayor Boris Johnson this Wednesday Mr Livingstone has called on his successor to “announce the immediate implementation of 24 hour operation of the Freedom Pass.”
During the campaign for this year’s Greater London Authority elections Livingstone and Johnson both backed plans for extending the scheme’s operating hours despite a key Johnson backer calling the plan a “mad idea”.
In a statement issued this morning Mr Livingstone said “At Mayor’s Question time on Wednesday there is a question to Boris Johnson on extending the operation of the Freedom Pass to 24 hours a day.”
“The first pledge I made during the Mayoral election campaign, on 15 January, was to make this extension so that the pass can be used around the clock. Boris Johnson was then forced to match it. ”
“There is no reason whatever why the 24 hour extension cannot be implemented immediately as there are no technical obstacles to this and on Wednesday Boris Johnson must therefore honour the pledge extracted from him in the course of the election campaign and announce immediate implementation of 24 hour operation of the Freedom Pass.”
The Freedom Pass scheme is funded and administered by London’s Borough Councils.
Mayor’s Question Time will on Wednesday 21st May at City Hall.
