London Evening Standard/London

Johnson
Boris Johnson yesterday accused Ken Livingstone of making “fraudulent” promises to slash bus and Tube fares if he is elected mayor.
A day after a Standard poll revealed that this year’s mayoral contest is on a knife edge, Johnson said London must not go back to the “era of waste and divisiveness” seen during his Labour rival’s time in City Hall.
Johnson, who has lost an eight-point lead over Livingstone since November, said he will work “flat out” to win back votes over the 100 days until the election on May 3.
A ComRes poll on Monday put Livingstone on a 51 to 49 lead overall following a battle over transport which saw him pledge to cut fares by seven percent.
The Tory mayor claimed Livingstone had broken two past promises to freeze or cut fares.
“This is essentially a fraudulent prospectus that he has tried several times before and I don’t think it will wash,” he told Nick Ferrari on LBC radio.
“He would either have to whack up council tax... or he’d have to whack in another congestion charge... or he’d have to cut a bus route or a major upgrade of the Tube.”
Criticised over crime, the mayor admitted police numbers have fallen in the past two years. But he maintained there will be about 1,000 more officers on the streets in May than when he took office in 2008.
He said: “We’ve done that by negotiating very hard with the government to get the funding.”
Johnson said crime had fallen by more than 10% overall during his term, but admitted there had been a spike in robberies over the past year.
A spokesman for Livingstone said: “Boris Johnson has finally confessed that 1,700 police officers have been cut whilst robbery, knife crime and burglary were all rising in London.”
Referring to Monday’s Standard poll Johnson said: “I really don’t want to go back to an era of waste and divisiveness that characterised the last administration.”
Meanwhile, he has written to London’s council leaders, urging them to freeze council tax. The mayor announced last month that he planned to freeze his share of council tax bills for the fourth year in a row to help “protect” Londoners from the high cost of living.
Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles this week warned town halls they have “a moral duty” to freeze council tax as families struggle.