• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

So you are conceding that there is no independent way in which it could be verified that this is value for money for Londoners.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

Unlike the Tories and the Liberals, I do not think there is a smoking gun on this issue and I am prepared, as I think most Londoners are, to take you on good faith. There is an unpredictability about this contract and you have had to vary it. The problem I have is maybe focused in two simple questions: the first is how do we, as part of the democratic audit of your work, establish independently whether there is value for money in this contract given that it is so opaque and caveated by confidentiality? You have revealed the contract...

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

How do you think London's public services would cope with a 20% cut in funding as proposed by the Conservatives and what do you think that the knock-on impact of that will be on the rest of the country?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

It is not just Zone 1that is going up considerably in excess of inflation. Zone 2 is 10%, which is more than three times the rate of inflation, and Zone 4 is 9%. That is right across the board "

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

Given your support for a local income tax, I take it you will be voting for the only candidate in Brent East tomorrow who actually advocates a local income tax, which is the Liberal Democrat. Can I ask how you square your manifesto commitment to freeze Tube fares in real terms over four years with having put them up in line with inflation in previous years and this year putting them up 25% for a Zone 1 single fare and 30% for a Zone 1 carnet? Surely the overall effect is actually to raise it very considerably in excess of...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

That is barely matched by the increased contribution which London's Council Tax payers have had to hand over to Government for redistribution. You have fallen into the elementary error of thinking that people who live in big houses and who pay high Council Tax are rich. You know very well that that is untrue. You yourself have just indicated that a person is more or less able to demonstrate, by a level of income tax, their own individual wealth. It is a crude weapon to suggest that just because somebody lives in a big house and who lives in an...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

I am astonished at your recent benevolence to the Government; no doubt it is because you want to rejoin the Labour Party. The truth is that the Government has rolled London over completely in the amount of Government grant that London has received as opposed to the amount of Government grant that the Government's friends in the North have received. Do you not think that the Government's support in the Lords this week, which suggests that there is going to be an extension of Council Tax bands and progress with revaluation on this basis, is going to hit London and...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

He also suggested that you might try to scrap weekly and monthly travelcards and replace them entirely with the Oyster Card pay-as-you-go system. Can you assure Londoners that travelcards are safe?

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

I am not sure if people in Outer London feel that £0.70 becoming £1 is not an increase but there you go. We will not argue about that. You said in answer to earlier question that your 60% increase was this astonishing success in Government grant and that if you got half as much again in the future, that would be counted as a great success. Now you have committed London to an Olympic bid and all that may develop in terms of cost. You have committed in terms of Tube unions to a four-year pay deal; you have got...

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

Absolutely but the need for those fire rescue units is because we are the capital city and therefore that is a cost that should be born by the Government, just as royalty and diplomatic protection is a cost born by the Government in grants to the Metropolitan Police and not born by the London taxpayer. Surely the same applies with Fire Authority. Costs associated with being a capital city should be born by the Government.