• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

Perhaps it would be convenient if you were to publish a list of your alibis on the Web, since you seem so far to have blamed the leaders of the London boroughs, the Government and the PPP. Is there anybody else you would like to add to that list of seasonal goodwill as to why it is everybody's fault but the Mayor's that things do not work in London?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

Are you proposing perhaps also to discuss with the Minister a list of people that you might conveniently blame when things go wrong and are not delivered in London?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

What do you talk to Stephen Byers about if you never discuss the congestion charge?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

So you think it is less likely, given that it is becoming more bizarre by the moment - a contract that is going to deliver less and less, and make it an impossible environment in which to work?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

In your opinion, then, is the handover of the Tube and commuter rail in the near future more or less likely than it was?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

So you are saying that you have discussed very recently with Ministers and with Stephen Byers or with civil servants the handover possibility of the Tube or commuter rail, and on the Tube he has said that it is subject to his two provisos, as ever - and on rail?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

I am glad that you think that Londoners will vote for best delivery of services, because you will also agree, no doubt, that they will be voting for the Conservatives in Westminster, where delivery is very good. For once, I agree with Lynne. I think that you put your political allegiances before London at the last election. There is no doubt that you allowed yourself to be persuaded to put the problems of the Tube on the back burner while Bob Kiley was briefly popped into a job which, as soon as the election was over, he was popped straight...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

And the congestion charge question?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

The quid pro quo of your fighting against the PPP and the Secretary of State's deliberations in January is whether you will personally accept and be bound by the decision he makes. Secondly, do you think it is adequate in that context that TfL's transition team which is dealing with taking on the Tube is being led by a public relations specialist? Finally, can you rule out the possibility of your cancelling the congestion charge on the basis that the PPP has delayed Tube improvements to such an extent that you do not think you can go ahead with it...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

I still think that you bottled out on really attacking the Government over the Tube during the general election. The Mayor: [indicating Labour Members] They don't think so. Lynne Featherstone: However, we are now moving to local elections in London, and the question is whether, in May, you will put body and soul into campaigning against the PPP.