• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 17 September 2014

Mr Mayor, you say they are minor changes. I do not understand what the rush is, then, in the way you have introduced these proposals. Why can there not be consultation? I am neither for nor against what you are trying to do, but there are other options. It seems to me that this is a good time to reflect about this important piece of work in terms of both preparation and, response to various civil contingencies and emergencies we may face. I do not understand why you are not talking to London boroughs about it. I do not understand...

• Question by: Stephen Knight
• Meeting date: 17 September 2014

Mr Mayor, in response to my request, you earlier said that your measures, including the ULEZ, would ensure compliance in London with the European Union (EU) legal limits by 2020. Mr Mayor, that was not quite accurate, was it, because your own ‑‑ Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): For nitrogen dioxide, I said. Stephen Knight AM: Yes, for nitrogen dioxide. Your own document, which I have in front of me here, says, and I quote, roughly, “This takes us two-thirds of the way to compliance with EU legal limits for nitrogen dioxide”. The truth is that the measures you have...

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 17 September 2014

Mr Mayor, you will by now have received a joint letter about this very topic signed by the two Assembly Members, Steve O’Connell and me, by the MPs in Merton and in Sutton and indeed by the council leaders for both boroughs, very much promoting the cause of the Tramlink. Of course, it is often referred to as the ‘Croydon Tramlink’ when it then runs to Wimbledon, which is in my constituency. The importance of this project, which has received very great support from the public, is that it would allow massive regeneration of Morden, which of course would put...

• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 17 September 2014

Sutton really has the case together here and the support, as has been mentioned, actually is of the specific route. This is not just a general concept, “Do you like the idea of having a tram?” It is actually the specific route. You have said today that you will look at progressing it. What I would like is for you to commit. You mentioned earlier your volcanic energy. Will you put your volcanic energy behind this and actually give us a date today when you think we could see the tram come to Sutton?

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 17 September 2014

Mr Mayor, I heard your earlier comments. You and TfL did ask for evidence of Sutton’s appetite for the tram. You now have it with 85% of the response being very positive across both boroughs [the London boroughs of Sutton and Merton]. You did ask - and TfL did ask - for a business plan with details of significant development in the town centre, significant regeneration and income uplift, and I suggest you and TfL now have that also. Would you therefore not agree that the case for the Sutton tram extension is in fact now irresistible?

• Question by: Tom Copley
• Meeting date: 17 September 2014

First of all, congratulations to you and commiserations to the people of Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Being a Member of Parliament (MP) is one thing, but taking up a Cabinet post or running for the leadership of the Conservative Party would be quite different, and both would require an immense amount of time and energy and would be entirely incompatible with remaining Mayor of London. Will you today make a firm commitment that you will not take up a Government post or run for the leadership of the Conservative Party whilst you are Mayor of London?

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 17 September 2014

Mayor, I recognise why you are taking the steps for this but, look, half a million people attended last year and we are offering 100,000 this year. The price of a £10 ticket will quickly escalate. I presume we will have a strategy of stopping ticket-touts or having non-transferrable tickets. It will be difficult to do. Is that the reason why the £1 million that we might raise when we sell all these tickets is going towards the ticketing process, not towards the cost of policing and other ancillary issues to do with the fireworks?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 17 September 2014

If the objective of charging for tickets for New Year’s Eve is to tackle overcrowding rather than to make money, would an alternative solution not be better, if you were to sponsor a series of local events with the boroughs throughout London, so that there are alternatives that Londoners could go to, rather than simply cramming more and more people into central London?

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 17 September 2014

Just briefly picking up on the point on Gatwick, your observation around the Estuary is that it is still something that you see as medium to long-term and there will be an inevitability about it that it will come back on the table. Surely, Mr Mayor, by turning your face away from a Gatwick extension, the danger here is indeed a Gatwick extension does not happen, the Estuary does not happen and Heathrow stands there lurking over us as something we all do not want. Surely, Mr Mayor, Gatwick is deliverable and we should be supporting that as, in essence...

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 17 September 2014

On the Living Wage, this is obviously a cross-party campaign. While you very wisely adopted it and we have now hit and exceeded our target, are you aware of any Labour Members of the Assembly having written to a single employer in their constituencies or elsewhere urging them to participate in the scheme? Are you aware of any of them attending any of the launches, or congratulating any of the businesses, or attending any of the accreditation schemes for the Living Wage? Are you aware even of any of the London Labour MPs writing on the campaign, which incidentally the...