Mayoral hopeful Zac Goldsmith’s team rush to his driver’s defence, after the Tory MP’s campaign bus appeared to be stuck in a suspended parking bay
When one bidder at the Conservative party's Black and White Gala shelled out £35,000 for a day on the campaign trail with Zac Goldsmith, did they think they would be paying for his parking tickets?
The Tory mayoral hopeful has failed to answer basic questions about transport in the capital in the past, and now Londoners are trying to catch his campaign bus driver out.
The blue-eyed blue-blooded Richmond MP's campaign bus was spotted in the City of Westminster in all its azure glory, seemingly parked in a suspended bay.
A lovely battle bus. Shame it's parked in a suspended bay, but there we go. pic.twitter.com/cbtrGWuL92
— Jay Elwes (@JayElwes) April 19, 2016
Parking in a suspended bay is no frivolous mistake for your average Londoner. Those who break the suspension order, which is normally used when buildings need maintenance work or debris removed, face a £44 fine if caught.
Fortunately for Goldsmith, the suspension in this case doesn't kick in until 24 April, but there's been much speculation over the skills of his bus driver. Earlier this month the campaign bus was caught on camera appearing to run a red light.
A spokesperson for Goldsmith's campaign told local reporters at the time that the mayoral hopeful takes the highway code "extremely seriously", and argued that the bus was passing through the crossing while the light was still green.
Goldsmith was also left red-faced this month after a BBC interview in the back of a black cab on London's tube network went awry.
The Conservative London mayoral candidate was asked by the BBC's assistant political editor Norman Smith to name the station that came after the sequence "Bond Street, Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road…"
Failing to give the correct answer of Holborn, Goldsmith side-stepped the question with the answer: "Most people have a route or two routes and they become like an extension of the body. But for me when it's outside the norm you have apps like Citymapper which you rely on every day."
Zac Goldsmith's campaign has been approached for comment.