London's inflation-busting fare increase, Cameron's Boris Johnson problem gets bigger

By Emily Thornberry MP

Boris Johnson’s new year fare increase is the clearest indication yet of what is wrong with his administration. He is a mayor with no clear vision for our capital, who nonetheless costs Londoners dear. In the process he tells us something about what a Tory government would be like. Like David Cameron’s inheritance tax cut, Boris Johnson looks after the interests of a few whilst making the majority pay.

In a few days time Londoners will return to work to be hammered hard with what the Financial Times has described as the biggest real-terms fare increase in Transport for London’s history. This follows hard on the heels of his 6% increase last year. Though Boris Johnson may have seemed amusing, the joke isn’t funny anymore.

The sheer scale of the increase is breathtaking. It is as if we have gone back in a time warp to days of Thatcher and Major. Once again investment is being cut, some services may be run down, but fares are going through the roof. It is a classic Tory fares policy.

Next week a single bus journey by Oyster will soar by 20% to £1.20. It means that the price of a single bus journey by Oyster will have risen by a third since Boris Johnson was elected – from 90p to £1.20. A weekly bus pass will shoot up by 20%, to £16.60.

Though Boris Johnson claims to speak for outer London he will hit many commuters in the suburbs hard. A six-zone peak single Tube fare by Oyster will rise by 10.5% to £4.20, and a five-zone off-peak single Tube fare - outside Zone 1 – will rocket by 18.2% to £1.30. And Boris Johnson is committed to further annual above-inflation fare increases.

Within this harsh new regime, a considerable amount of the burden will be passed to bus users. Overall tube fares will rise 3.9%, whilst overall bus fares will rise by 12.7%. But both sets of rises are way above inflation.

n attack on the affordability of public transport services will price some Londoners off these services. Many others will simply have to bear the pain. Either way it is the exact opposite of what hard-working Londoners need.

Boris Johnson will no doubt try to blame someone else. But the reality is that he is raising money by hiking fares - rather than keeping the Western extension of the congestion charge or by charging extra for gas guzzlers. Johnson's decision to remove the western extension of the congestion charge has lost London £70 million a year from its future transport budgets. He axed the £25 charge for the most polluting cars driving into central London, protecting polluters but costing London a projected £50million a year.

Perhaps Boris Johnson thinks that the fare increases he is imposing are of little consequence. Remember this is someone who thinks a £250,000 salary for churning out a Daily Telegraph column is "chicken feed". This is the mayor who devotes his time to defending bankers  and opposing tax changes that will make sure those on the highest incomes contribute a fairer share during the recession. It is small wonder that he is so careless with the finances of London’s transport users when his priority is to look after the interests of the most privileged.

London was the only major city in the world to successfully get people out of cars and onto public transport in the last decade. Johnson threatens that progress.

Boris Johnson represents a problem for David Cameron on two fronts. By pandering to his own party’s right wing base over the Lisbon Treaty or tax policy he causes divisions within Tory ranks and fuels speculation that he hankers after David Cameron’s job. And by his actions in looking after the most well-off but hitting hard-working people in the pocket he illustrates what a Tory government would look like.

But most importantly it is Londoners themselves who are paying the price. London Labour members will be campaigning hard against this unjust and unnecessary fare increase, which says everything we need to know about whose interests the Conservative Party represents.

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