Government ‘inciting’ strikes by not agreeing to TfL funding, says Sadiq Khan
London mayor Sadiq Khan has accused the government of “inciting” next week’s strikes by failing to reach an agreement over Transport for London’s (TfL) long-term funding.
10,000 members of the RMT and Unite unions working for London Underground are set to strike on Tuesday, on the same day 40,000 railway workers will walk out in a dispute over job cuts and salaries.
Rail staff from the RMT and other unions will carry on striking on the following days: 23, 25, 26, 28 and 29 June.
“At the core of this is the government… orchestrating and engineering and inciting a strike in London by attaching these conditions to the funding deal, which has got the trade unions really concerned,” he said.
“The Tories are in government and this is classic deflecting from Shapps and Johnson who are responsible for this divisive politics, for whipping up them versus us, communities versus workers.”
The remarks come as the railway industry urged the London mayor and transport secretary Grant Shapps to put politics aside and agree on a long-term funding deal for TfL.
The public body’s finances were badly hit during the pandemic, as the network relies on fare revenues to stay afloat.
While passenger numbers continue to grow, TfL’s future remains uncertain.
If an agreement between Westminster and City Hall is not reached by 24 June, TfL will be forced to cut up to 20 per cent of buses as part of its ‘managed decline’ scenario.
“If TfL is to avoid further cuts which would damage our city’s economic recovery from this pandemic, the government must do the right thing and come forward with a long term funding deal to support the capital’s public transport – as governments of almost all other major global cities do,” Seb Dance, deputy mayor for transport, said recently.