Lib Dems call for London fares freeze funds to go to Met Police

The Lib Dem's London mayoral candidate says he would reverse incumbent mayor Sadiq Khan's "phoney" fares freeze and give the money to the police instead.

Rob Blackie said the freeze would mainly benefit tourists because it applied only to pay-as-you-go fares, while travelcards and daily and weekly "caps" would still rise by about 5%.

He pledged to invest the money in more officers and faster reform of the Met.

Labour's Mr Khan said his policy would make transport more affordable.

The Labour mayor is channelling £147m to Transport for London (TfL) to hold some Tube and Overground fares down for one year and temporarily suspend peak fares on Fridays.

He has said he would fund the plan using City Hall reserves and business rates.

However, marking his first major policy announcement, the Liberal Democrat candidate said it was a "pre-election gimmick" and millions of passengers would not see any gain.

"While the headline sounds good, many Londoners won't feel the benefit and will be shocked to find out after the election that their travel costs continue to rise despite Khan's election promise," said Mr Blackie.

"This will do nothing to address the cost of living for millions of Londoners," he added.

"What Londoners do feel the effect of is the lack of police on our streets and the chaos surrounding the culture in the Metropolitan Police. That's why I've pledged to reallocate that money to where it's needed most."

However, Mr Blackie says he would still freeze the single bus fare at £1.75, at a cost of about £30m.

"We know that people that travel by bus tend to live in lower-income areas with less availability of public transport. Keeping fares low for these passengers is really important," he said.

That would leave nearly £120m for policing.

The Met needs to find nearly £40m of cuts or savings before its spending plans for next year can be approved.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has called for an additional £140m to divert more officers into neighbourhoods and push through improvements identified by Baroness Louise Casey's scathing report.

Immediate doubts were raised about Mr Khan's plan for a three-month trial of "off-peak Fridays", forecast to cost £24m, when it emerged there had been no negotiations with the train operating companies.

It has to be agreed how much of the £24m will go to the train operators to compensate them for lost revenue.

The current mayor is widely expected to find some money to help the police before his budget is legally signed-off in the next few weeks.

When he launched his plans for the one-off fares freeze, Mr Khan said it would save people £90.

"Not only will this put money back in people's pockets, making transport more affordable for millions of Londoners, but will encourage people back on to our public transport network," he said.

The mayor says he plans to put an extra £88m, mainly from council tax, into policing next year and has called on the government to "step up" with more.

"At the same time he's investing record amounts in London's police despite huge cuts from the Tory Government," his spokesperson added.

"The mayor would welcome the Lib Dems joining him in making the case for Tory ministers to reverse their huge cuts to policing and youth services."

Mr Khan has asked Lib Dem supporters to "lend" him their vote so he can defeat Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall.

Her team would not say whether she would reverse the fares freeze, but have pledged more for policing.

A spokesperson said the upcoming mayoral election on 2 May was "a two-horse race and only Susan can put an end to Sadiq Khan's eight years of failure".

"Susan will invest £200m into the Met Police, get a grip of crime and make our streets safer."

Green mayoral candidate Zoe Garbett called the Lib Dem plan a "knee jerk".

"If he was aiming to raise money for policing it should have been from a more sustainable source of funding than a single year's uptick in retained business rates and old reserves," she said.

"We have our own plans for both that are well thought through."

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