• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

So you've made an offer but you haven't heard yet whether or not they're going to accept it?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

On your point about kicking out councils because of what the Government does, I take your point, but the fact is councillors and these people round the table have a responsibility to tell their respective national parties about the situation and what they understand it to be and what they understand their constituents to be saying. I haven't met anybody who supports PPP - I haven't met any Government ministers - and I bet you guys haven't either. Ken, you actually had a very practical point earlier about a meeting between ministers and trusted advisers who can actually tell them...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

You know the rate of return as well. I put it to you that your officers at Transport for London, of which you have assumed the Chair, have been in detailed correspondence with London Underground, who have explained to you on three separate occasions how to get the rate of return. You had a conversation with Nick Raynsford, who described the process to you. You know exactly what the rate of return is and you know it's not an unreasonable one, given the risks that are being taken.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

You have failed to present the Assembly with a reasoned argument as to why you're taking your position and so we are unable, at this meeting, to hold you to account for it. It is self-evident to any reasonable person that if the contracts materially change then the Government would have to consult again. It doesn't take a genius to see that, it doesn't take you to explain that to us, that will have to happen. Are you the same Mayor who has repeatedly argued about the Government not disclosing information, who is now complaining that they have disclosed it...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

I think Londoners can reasonably conclude that you're stage-managing this whole event, you're cherry-picking soundbites and media opportunities, you're not being properly accountable to the Assembly. I think Londoners are totally fed up with this. They want to see investment in the Tube, they're not ideologically driven as you or maybe I am on this issue, they want to see the investment. They see you as being a curmudgeonly obstacle and maybe Mr Kiley's in the same bracket?

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

Can I just emphasise how important that is. This debate has been characterised by many people, including yourself, as being about soundbites from different people. You criticised the Government, colleagues around this table from different parties, for making assertions. You claimed that Government ministers don't know what's in the contracts. If that is your claim the onus must be on you to provide that information, and frankly we've been waiting a very long time for it. I'm quite happy to wait until just after Easter to have those precise statements, but it is very, very important that that is when...

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

Ken, we're not asking what your alternative is, we're asking for what your concerns are about these contracts. Why is it that you think it is appropriate to be renewing Underground trains, which are very expensive and which are still perfectly fine? You express horror that Jubilee Line trains weren't going to be replaced until I forget which date it was, but Jubilee Line trains are perfectly comfortable, don't seem to be a particular problem. What exactly is the difficulty here?

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

I do think it is important that you are explicit about what precisely you feel is wrong with the contracts. You have expressed at various times concerns about safety. You've expressed concerns about the value for money of these contracts. As Labour politicians - and I believe Labour colleagues in Government wouldn't wish to pursue anything that was unsafe or which was not value for money - I think the onus is upon you to spell out what precisely are your concerns on these questions, in the light of the information that you now have in respect of the contracts...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

I think everyone accepts that you were conned in the General Election into campaigning for Labour with this non-existent deal that the Government was proposing on PPP, which collapsed straight after the general election. Will you be again conned into putting on a red rosette in the local elections? Because whether it's the fault of Labour councillors or not, the message is, if you go around with a red rosette then it doesn't matter how appalling the Government's behaviour on PPP is, as long as people vote Labour. That's the message that goes out.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

So if PPP does go ahead, would you reckon that you would be advising people to buy shares in the companies that are going to be operating the contract?