Tory London mayoral candidate Susan Hall stumped by most basic question on LBC
The Tory candidate to be London Mayor has admitted she doesn't know the price of a bus fare - just days after criticising a decision to freeze fares in the capital.
Susan Hall was unable to answer the basic question in a painful LBC radio interview, where she was grilled on issues facing Londoners. Asked how much people have to pay to get on a bus in the city, she said: "I don't use them. I use trains all the time." The astonished presenter, Nick Ferrari, said: "You don't know what a bus fare is?" Ms Hall responded simply: "No."
Labour's Dawn Butler said Ms Hall was "seriously unfit to be London Mayor and clearly doesn’t understand the cost of living in London". The Brent Central MP said: "She's running for Mayor but hasn't grasped the basics - like the price of a London bus fare, how little a Met police officer earns, or who owns Hammersmith Bridge. And her values are also totally out of line with Londoners
"We’re asking Londoners to once again vote for Sadiq, who has a proven track record in delivering for London, and prevent someone being elected who is out-of-touch, totally out of her depth and would be a disaster for the capital."
The radio gaffe comes after Ms Hall criticised Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan's announcement on Friday of a funding boost of £123million to freeze Transport for London (TfL) fares until March 2025. The freeze will apply to pay-as-you-go fares for bus, Tube, DLR and tram journeys, and the majority of those fares for London Overground and Elizabeth line trips. It means a bus fare will remain at £1.75.
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Ms Hall, his Conservative opponent in May's mayoral election, described the policy as a "last roll of the dice". "This fares freeze is Sadiq Khan's last roll of the dice, because he knows that his eight years of failure will catch up with him this May," she said.
"After pleading poverty throughout his mayoralty, Sadiq Khan expects us to believe that he has miraculously conjured up this money, when the truth is we will be paying for it through increased council tax, his unfair Ulez expansion and a new tax that will charge you for every mile you drive." A spokesman for Mr Khan hit back: "Pay per mile charging has been ruled out by the mayor and no such scheme is on the table."
Pressed on LBC whether she would reverse the fare freeze, Ms Hall said: "I don't know. Let's wait and see what the finances are… Nick, Sadiq Khan has been screaming that he hasn't got enough money for the last seven years… I suspect it would stay in place. I wonder where the money has come from. Don't forget, he has spent seven years saying he's got no money. He's been underfunded. And yet suddenly he's got money to do a fare freeze. Oh, guess why? There's an election coming.
"He'll find other monies for all sorts of other things. And it's because there's an election coming. But in the last seven years, he's been depriving various vital services from money – and I would suggest definitely the police – in order that he can have a bumper year now just before an election and buy the votes, quite frankly."
Conservative politicians previously criticised Mr Khan for freezing fares for the first four years after he was elected in May 2016, claiming this damaged TfL's finances and contributed to the transport body being reliant on Government bailouts following the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Khan has insisted the need for funding was caused by the collapse in revenue from the drop in passenger numbers due to the virus crisis.
City Hall said an example of the benefits of the freeze include someone commuting from Hornchurch to a central London station five days a week avoiding a potential 20p increase to their fare, saving up to £90 a year.
The car crash LBC interview also saw Ms Hall unable to say who owns London's Hammersmith Bridge, which has been closed to vehicles for almost five years. It was revealed last week the cost of repairing the bridge have nearly doubled from initial estimates. Ms Hall was criticised by an LBC caller after saying "it's not very clear" who owns the bridge.
She said: "Well it's between the two councils apparently. It's not very clear but at the end of the day the Mayor is in charge of London and if things are not working they have to step in." A member of the public who phoned in hit back: "Well I'm a bit disappointed by this response because it shows a basic factual misunderstanding of the case. The bridge doesn't belong to two councils. It only belongs to one council, which is Hammersmith and Fulham."
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