Tuesday 26 February 2019 1:19 pm | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 1:49 am

High Court strikes down black cab appeal against Uber’s London licence

The High Court rejected an appeal to block Uber's 15-month London licence today, dismissing claims that the decision to grant it was biased.

Taxi drivers of the United Cabbies Group (UCG) argued that chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot's decision to grant Uber a licence to operate in London was affected by her husband's relationship with the company.

Lord James Arbuthnot previously held a directorship at SC Strategy, whose client was state-owned Qatar Investment Authority, a wealth fund known for investing in Uber's parent company.

UCG's case centred around this relationship, stating that Uber's licence should be revoked on the basis of bias.

But lord chief justice Burnett dismissed the cabbies' argument as tenuous, likening the attempt to establish a relationship between the chief magistrate and Uber to the 1927 song “I danced with a man who danced with a girl who danced with the Prince of Wales”.

“Having ascertained all the circumstances bearing on the suggestion that the judge was biased, we consider that those circumstances would not lead a fair-minded and informed observer to conclude that there was a real possibility that the judge was biased in this case,” Lord Burnett's judgement read.

The dismissal is the latest in a series of events set into motion by Transport for London's (TfL) decision to not renew Uber's operating licence in September 2017 on the basis that Uber had misled TfL about its booking process and showed a lack of responsibility for public safety.

A month later, Uber appealed to Westminster Magistrate's Court, where it was heard by the chief magistrate in late June 2018.

After finding that Uber “had changed a number of its working practices and its governance”, Arbuthnott granted a 15-month licence to Uber so that TfL could “check the results” of the changes.

Uber's licence to operate in London is set to expire in September this year.