Sadiq Khan is on track to have “the worst strikes record” of any London mayor, say GLA Conservatives
The mayor is on track for the "worst strikes record of any mayor", Greater London Authority Conservatives said today.
In the latest clash between Conservative London Assembly members and Sadiq Khan, Keith Prince, the deputy chair of the Assembly's Transport Committee, said today's walkout on the Central and Waterloo & City Lines will by the fourth strike in the nine-and-a-half months he's been in office, giving him a projected yearly average of 5.05 strikes.
"The mayor has previously been keen to point to his strikes record as a measure of success against his predecessor," Prince said. "The cold hard facts now are that he is on track to have the worst strikes record of any London mayor – and one that looks set to get worse."
Read more: Five things you'll need to avoid Tube strike trouble today
Conservatives have criticised Khan for vowing "to make sure there are zero days of strikes" on his campaign trail.
Prince added:
The unions sense a weak mayor who will do anything to avoid further walkouts and can be bullied into a deal. We now have a hugely disruptive strike because eight drivers don’t want to move locations from east to central London – a common daily commute for thousands of ordinary Londoners.
During Ken Livingstone's tenure there were 16 strikes in eight years, an average of two a year, while that rose to 35 strikes in eight years under Boris Johnson and an average of 4.4 a year.
Using the ONS measure of days lost to strike action, during Johnson's eight years, 32,212 days were lost as a result of industrial action. Since May 2016, there have been a total of 2,001 days lost, which City Hall notes is a 40 per cent reduction on Johnson's average.
A spokesperson for the mayor said the comments were "more desperate nonsense from the Tories".
"The number of working days lost to strike action under Sadiq has in fact reduced by 40 per cent, substantially reducing the disruption faced by Londoners," the spokesperson said.
"The mayor is cleaning up the toxic legacy of Boris Johnson, whose last three years included record levels of industrial action."
Read more: Brace yourselves: The RMT has announced another Tube strike is looming
They added:
Under the Tories’ failed approach Londoners would have seen huge disruption across the tube network in the second week of February.
The mayor will continue to put the interests of passengers first, working to reduce the numbers of strikes across the transport network.