Sadiq Khan was asked about his mental health during the coronavirus lockdown. This is what he said

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London Assembly, mental health, MQT, Sadiq Khan, Tony Devenish

Sadiq Khan (above) was asked at Mayor’s Question Time yesterday about his recent comments (to The Sunday Times Magazine) on his own mental health during the coronavirus pandemic.

A summary of his remarks to the London Assembly yesterday are reported today in the Evening Standard.

Below is a fuller transcript of what he said verbally, during the “virtual” MQT meeting, in response to the written question below from Tony Devenish, a Tory member of the London Assembly.

Mr Devenish’s question (London Leadership Question No: 2020/2518) had been submitted in advance and selected for a verbal response from the Mayor.

Mr Devenish asked: “On 21st June 2020 you told the Sunday Times that you had ‘not been providing proper leadership’ as Mayor of London. While you have our sympathies, do you not think you should have notified the London Assembly and shared this with the GLA Leadership and Londoners?”

The Mayor introduced his remarks to MQT by saying he wanted to set an example by being “open and honest” about his own mental health, as it may encourage others to seek support.

He has previously spoken to the Evening Standard and others about his mental health.

Mr Khan said: “None of us are superhuman. We all have our good days and our bad days. This is especially true in the middle of a pandemic, when we are all finding it tough and we are all being asked to make huge sacrifices to help save lives, from staying indoors and working at home, to limiting outdoor exercise and our interactions with friends, family members and loved ones.

“I make no apology for acknowledging the toll lockdown has had on Londoners’ mental health, including my own.

“It would be irresponsible and dishonest to pretend this period has been easy for people living in our city.

“I’m pleased to say that many Londoners, including City Hall staff as well, have thanked me for speaking so openly about this issue, and I will continue to do so….”

He said he had no desire to be seen as “some sort of Alpha male who constantly seeks to parade their virility”.

He continued: “We are all human. We all have days where we are not firing on all cylinders, as I’m sure even Assembly Member Devenish can confirm.

“But I can say with confidence, I don’t think there has been a single day during this crisis when this administration, and my team, hasn’t provided the leadership that London needs.”

Mr Devenish: “This is the biggest crisis our country has faced since World War Two, and you tell the Sunday Times what you said. You didn’t tell the London Assembly. Why was that?”

The Mayor: “I’m quite surprised at this question because all of us will have days or periods where we have physical ill health. We will all have periods where we could have family bereavement or other issues. Similarly we will have issues when we are not 100 per cent. There has been no criticism in the past in relation to those, which is human nature.

“There appears to be a criticism of me based on me being honest about how I’m feeling…. This is one of the reasons there is stigma around mental health and people talking about mental health.

“One of my roles as a politician is to follow the advice of the previous Prime Minister, which is to use our role to educate people. I’m not hesitating in my role to talk about mental health, in relation to how I feel.

“The reality is that I have not taken time off because I have not needed to… talking about it can be a big way of addressing this. I’m not sure what the criticism is: that I should be sharing with the assembly every day I’m feeling a bit poorly?

“The reality that me talking about it has encouraged others to talk about it, and I will continue to do so, even if it continues to lead to criticism from Conservatives.”

Mr Devenish: “Just for clarity, Mr Mayor, I’m not criticising you for having the guts to talk about it. I’m congratulating you. What I am asking you: that during the largest crisis since World War Two, that you would actually inform the assembly rather than the Sunday Times in a piece which, frankly many people have approached me and said they were amazed at the way you broached the subject. It’s the way you have done it, not the fact that you have done it. Can I finally ask you: do you not feel that if you were clearly unwell at times, you should have stood down temporarily, put your deputy mayor in charge and informed the assembly?”

The Mayor: “What you don’t understand is that your question illustrates one of the reasons why people are scared to talk about their mental health. You assume that it automatically makes someone unfit to do the job that they are doing. That is one of the reasons why people in places of work across our city, and across our country, don’t talk about it with their line managers or their other colleagues, because people like you say that means you are unfit to work. All of us have periods where we are not firing on all cylinders. All of us, if we are honest, are not always at 100 per cent. I will not stop being honest with Londoners about the fact that we should talk about mental ill health.

“My age cohort, men aged 25 to 49, are the largest group of people who, I’m afraid, kill themselves because of mental ill health. The sort of attitude that leads to the question being asked, leads to men not having the confidence to do so. Three-quarters of people who kill themselves are men, so me talking about it – albeit, there are people who criticise me – I’m going to carry on doing so.”

Mr Devenish: “By the way, Mr Mayor, I didn’t criticise you. I asked a question. Thank you.”

 

Crouch End gets a bike shop again as Covid sparks soaring demand for cycling

Tags

Crouch End, Cycling

Glass half full: Gavin Hudson, centre, and the Butternut Bikes team began life in a furloughed pub

A pop-up cycle repair business that began life in a furloughed pub has moved to a permanent new home after being inundated with customers.

Butternut Bikes says it was hit by a “whirlwind” of demand from north Londoners desperate to get their bikes road-worthy as the lockdown eases but public transport has to be avoided.

Its shop in Crouch End is round the corner from the Railway Tavern pub, where it began life while the pub was forced to close as a result of lockdown.

The new shop in Crouch Hill

Co-founder Gavin Hudson told me last week: “We have just got the keys to the shop and it’s all systems go. It’s kind of crazy.

“We’ve been in the pub for three weeks and it became increasingly busy. We fixed a lot of bikes. What we love doing is fixing bikes and making people happy. It’s been a whirlwind. I bought a 50-page invoice book and went through it in a week.

“Our focus has been to make the best out of a bad situation [with coronavirus] and help people to get around.

“In some ways I’m almost feeling guilty to have done well out of this, but our focus is on helping people rather than making ourselves some money. The bike industry has never been the way to make a fast buck.”

Mr Hudson, 39, used to work in Velorution bike shop in Islington. Business partner Tullen Dawson used to work at Brompton bikes.

They quit their jobs to focus on repairing rather than selling bikes and recruited a 17-year-old who has been unable to go to school during lockdown.

At first, Mr Hudson joined a “mutual aid” group that would carry out repairs at people’s homes. A church then allowed the group to do bike repairs in its car park, but it became “busier and busier”.

Then the landlord of the Railway Tavern, in Crouch End Hill, offered the use of his pub as a pop-up bike repair shop.

The area’s only bike shop, Evans, had shut down last year. Customer demand is expected to increase further when the Government scheme offering half a million £50 vouchers for bike repairs is launched this summer.

Having your cake: first-day treats at the new shop

The new shop, in Crouch Hill, will focus initially on repairs. “If there were bikes to sell, I would sell them,” Mr Hudson said. “We get a lot of inquiries about bikes. But there just isn’t the availability of new or second-hand bikes anywhere, particularly of women’s bikes.

“We are fixing a lot of bikes that are coming out of garden sheds covered in cobwebs. We’re fixing about 10 bikes a day, and I have turned away five or six already today. That is with no advertising whatsoever. The spirit in the community has been amazing. People are so thankful to have a bike shop.

“At the start [of the pandemic], it was people who wanted to use their bike for exercise. As lockdown moved into the second phase, more and more people began to prepare to go back to work by bike. They’re preparing to use public transport as little as possible.”

Safety alert as thousands of novice riders start cycling in London without lessons

Tags

Cycling, TfL

No segregation: A coronavirus “pop-up” cycle lane introduced by Westminster council in Portland Place

Cycle lessons should be restarted urgently to help safeguard the thousands of novice riders who are getting on a bike to avoid public transport, instructors said today.

Free lessons for adults and children have been suspended across London since lockdown and cycle instructors fear they may not restart for school pupils until September.

Transport for London, which has suffered a financial crisis due to the collapse in bus and Tube fares, is proposing online courses and working with selected boroughs if it secures an anticipated £4m of Government funding.

But instructors say there no substitute to being taught on the road and fear that not all boroughs will receive funds.

Suami Rocha, a cycle instructor in north London, said: “There are huge numbers of new and returning cyclists we should be working with right now to make sure they’re riding as safely as possible. Losing them to cycling again would be a travesty.

“We are ready to play our part in helping London to open up again, but at the moment we can’t. We are fighting for the right to work.”

Philippa Robb, an instructor in west London, said: “Most of what we do is teach nervous riders how to control their bike properly to be able to go on the road. We will go on a ride with them and cycle them to their workplace.

“There seems to be no real appreciation of the necessity of being able to cycle safely on the road. We know through research that it’s fear of the dangers that is the biggest obstacle that stops people from cycling.”

Michael McSherry, chairman of the cycling instructors branch of the IWGB union, welcomed the anticipated £4m investment in cycle training but said: “While there is potentially a role for online training for already skilled cyclists, we are worried that it will replace contact with clients. We are also worried that not all boroughs will receive funding.”

The London Road Safety Council has also raised concerns with TfL about a lack of funding for boroughs to deliver cycle training.

It said: “Cycle training must be available now to all boroughs before our roads are flooded with inexperienced cyclists rushing to work. People need advice, support and guidance when cycling on our roads – having a bike and getting on it is not enough.”

A TfL spokesman said: “From mid-June, we hope to start allocating cycle training funding to boroughs who have a strong track record of delivering cycle training, a high proportion of switchable trips, a population with a high propensity to switch to cycling, and new or existing cycling infrastructure; so that cycle training delivery can be resumed.

“The new online module will be available from the end of June and the TfL website will be updated to provide information on how to participate in the online training or book a face-to-face cycle training session via the boroughs.”

• An edited version of this story appeared in the Evening Standard.

4G trial begins on the Tube, enabling mobile calls to made from Underground tunnels

Tube passengers will be able to make mobile calls in some Underground tunnels for the first time today.

A trial was launched offering 4G signals on the eastern section of the Jubilee line, between Westminster and Canning Town.

Transport for London aims introduce 4G across the entire line by the end of the year – with other Tube lines following.

The project means 4G will soon be available in all Jubilee line tunnels and platforms – starting to tackle the capital’s biggest “not spot”, where there is no reception for conventional voice calls across the deep-level Underground.

Customers of all four UK mobile network operators – EE, O2, Vodafone and 3 – will be able to access the system.

There will also be “enhanced” wifi connections at stations, replacing the Virgin Media deal that is coming to an end.

Connections for super-fast 5G have also been laid in the tunnels, as well as the Home Office’s Emergency Services Network (ESN) radio link.

TfL, which has paid £10m towards the 4G infrastructure, hopes to receive £25m in revenue over the first five years.

It is aiming for a “long-term revenue stream” that lasts 20 years, with the option of a further five to make a total of 25. Yesterday it predicted up to £500m in lost Tube and bus fares as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

The 4G signal will provide passengers with uninterrupted connections – allowing them to watch a video, download emails and view social media.

Ticket halls and corridors within stations are also covered by the pilot, except for London Bridge and Waterloo stations where the signal will only be available on the Jubilee line platforms.

TfL hopes to award a contract to deliver mobile coverage across the whole Underground network in the summer, so that other lines can begin to get mobile connectivity from 2021.

TfL is currently working in 53 stations, out of a total 127 stations which require works, to install the required cabling.

Fuller details of TfL’s 4G plans were included in its most recent finance committee papers.

Heidi Alexander, deputy mayor for transport, said: “Poor mobile connectivity is a major barrier to growth so I’m delighted that Tube passengers on the eastern section of the Jubilee line will be able to enjoy 4G access.

“This milestone will enable Londoners and visitors to get online while travelling through tunnels and platforms, doing everything from watching videos and messaging friends to catching up on emails.”

Shashi Verma, chief technology officer at TfL, said: “This has been very complex work to install the necessary equipment to allow our customers to be able to get phone reception within our tunnels while keeping the stations open and operational.”

Derek McManus, chief operating officer of O2, said: “It will also mean thousands of fans travelling to The O2… will now be able to share their experiences with friends and family, before and after a show.”

An edited version of this story appears in today’s Evening Standard.

Sadiq Khan was devastated when I told him I was quitting, reveals departing TfL chief

Down in the hole: Ross Lydall and Mike Brown survey the expansion work at Bank station

London’s transport chief today revealed that Sadiq Khan was “devastated” when he revealed he was leaving TfL.

Mike Brown, who stands down as transport commissioner on May 8 after five years, said he was privileged to have worked for the Mayor but said it would be good for TfL to have “fresh thinking” at the top.

Asked how Mr Khan reacted when he handed in his resignation, Mr Brown said: “He was devastated, he really was. I told him it was nothing to do with him.”

Mr Brown, who started working for London Transport in 1989, is leaving to become chairman of the £4bn redevelopment of the Houses of Parliament.

Today, in an interview with the Evening Standard, he warned that parts of the Tube were at risk of “serial decline” unless the Government helped to fund major upgrades.

Mr Brown said that a £1.5billion new fleet of 94 trains due on the Piccadilly line from 2023 would not be able to run any faster or more regularly than at present because there was no money to upgrade the “knackered” signalling system.

Bank station: a new southbound tunnel for the Northern line is being dug

A £656m upgrade of Bank station would not deliver its full potential on the Northern line because trains would still get stuck in a bottleneck at Camden Town, he added.

Mr Brown pleaded with Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ensure that any “levelling up” of spending with the North did not mean a “levelling down” for the capital.

“There are huge parts of the transport network that are still at real risk of serial decline,” he told the Standard.

“We have the two oldest fleets of trains now in the UK. The Piccadilly line trains were introduced in 1973, but they’re not quite as old as the Bakerloo line trains that were introduced in 1972.

“We will have, with no exception, the oldest two fleets of trains in the land. It’s quite remarkable that they’re still running, but it’s not sustainable.”

Installing digital signalling on the Piccadilly line would increase capacity by 60 per cent, he said. The cost is estimated at £2.45 billion.

Mr Brown said weekday passenger numbers on the Underground had doubled from 2.5m to five million since 2000 but “not one km of extra track” had been built.

There are no new projects in the pipeline once Bank station and the extension of the Northern line to Battersea power station are completed.

Holborn station was also desperately in need of expansion to cope with more passengers but no cash was available, he said.

Mr Brown was today in Goole, where Siemens is building a factory where the walk-through, air conditioned Piccadilly line trains will be built. He said this was a great example of how investment in London benefited the rest of the country.

He said the new trains would increase capacity by 12 per cent as they were slightly longer. But a new digital signalling system akin to the Victoria and Northern lines would increase total extra capacity to 60 per cent.

But he said: “I have no certainty of capital funding to enable that to happen.

“They will go exactly the same speed as just now. We will not be able to run any more frequency. It’s very much like a Ferrari on a country road.”

TfL’s finances have been badly hit by the loss of a £700m annual Government operating subsidy and the two-and-a-half year delay in opening Crossrail.

TfL will be deprived of about £1.35billion in lost fares due to Crossrail not opening under central London until summer next year [2021], as opposed to December 2018.

This is in addition to the £640m cost of Mayor Khan’s four-year partial fares freeze, though Mr Brown says that keeping TfL fares down has encouraged more people to travel.

There has been a decline in bus journeys. Tube journeys have been less badly affected but have failed to hit targets. However, income from Underground fares continues to rise as a consequence of the annual increase in Travelcards.

The overall impact on TfL’s finances is that it is not due to break even until 2022/23, a year later than planned.

Bank station: new access to the DLR is being created

Asked about the Mayor’s environmental policies, Mr Brown said electric cars were “not 100 per cent brilliant” because they emitted PM particulates form their brakes and tyres and because of concerns whether the electricity was from renewable sources.

“Private cars and inner London don’t really work together,” he said. “What you don’t want is hugely congested streets that are being used in an inefficient way.

“Single occupancy cars are very inefficient compared to the number of people you can get on buses or to give the space to cycleways or decent walking provision.”

He said the central London ultra low emission zone had been more successful than hoped, with about 70 per cent compliance in terms of vehicles meeting the exhaust emissions rules.

He predicted the Ulez expansion to the suburbs in October 2021 would also be a success. “I’m with the Mayor 100 per cent on this,” he said. “I think not tackling London’s toxic air is not acceptable.”

First interview with new London fire commissioner: ‘I’m here for the long term and will put Grenfell failings right’

Tags

Andy Roe, Grenfell Tower, London Fire Brigade, Sadiq Khan

Fire commissioner Andy Roe (picture by Jeremy Selwyn)

The new head of the London fire brigade today revealed he had apologised to bereaved victims of the Grenfell Tower disaster as he sought to regain their trust.

London fire commissioner Andy Roe also issued a plea to Londoners living in the 7,000 high-rise blocks in the capital to set aside any post-Grenfell doubts and continue to follow firefighters’ advice in the event of a blaze.

He was appointed by Mayor Sadiq Khan to speed the “transformation” of a brigade heavily criticised by the fire watchdog for being too slow to address the failures of Grenfell and requiring widespread improvement.

He met members of the Grenfell Next of Kin group earlier this week. In his first interview since starting the job on January 1, Mr Roe, 45, told the Standard: “I never ever want to be in the situation again where I have to sit across the table from so many bereaved families.

“I offered an apology. I felt that some of our institutional shortcomings… meant we had let my own people down, who were so brave that night, and we had let them down.”

He said he was committed to meeting everyone affected by Grenfell, which claimed 72 lives. He said: “I owe them that. As the London fire commissioner, I’m trusted to serve and protect those people.

“I can’t bring their families back. I will never be able to understand nor make better their pain. 

“The best I can do is show that we have listened, that they are respected, that their voice is heard, that I understand them and we are here to serve them and protect them and listen to what they say. 

“If anyone knows something about that fire and knows what needs to change, it is those people. We lost their trust.”

Giant picture outside Andy Roe’s office at LFB HQ in Union St. The commissioner is pictured on the right.

It was Mr Roe who, 18 minutes after arriving on scene at Grenfell on the night of the disaster in June 2017, abandoned the “stay put” advice being given to residents and ordered 999 call-handlers to tell them to try to escape.

Last October, the first report from the Grenfell Tower inquiry said more lives could have been saved if “stay put” had been rescinded sooner by commanders already on the ground.

There are currently 283 tall buildings in London where “stay put” is suspended – meaning mass evacuation would be ordered immediately on fire breaking out – because of dangerous cladding or other safety issues.

Mr Roe said it was vital that residents in all high-rise blocks followed advice from firefighters in the event of a fire.

He revealed that firefighters last week had for the first time taken part in a mock exercise that required the emergency evacuation of dozens of “trapped” residents.

A disused nine-storey block in Southwark and dozens of volunteers were used to recreate a Grenfell-type scenario.

A thousand incident commanders are being taught how to determine if a building is “failing” like Grenfell – when fire spreads rapidly – or are correctly designed and able to withstand a blaze until it can be extinguished.

Call handlers are being retrained in what advice to give trapped residents. More mock exercises will be staged. The training will be completed by July 31.

Mr Roe said: “When my officers either say ‘stay put’ or ‘get out’, trust us and listen – that is an absolute priority to me. 

“I do accept that if you live in a high rise in London, because of Grenfell, you may not trust that advice at the moment. 

“But I could not put it more clearly: stay put is still the best advice for the vast majority of high-rise residents.”

Mr Roe said it was important to remember that fire risks in the capital extended beyond high-rise blocks. The LFB is part of a national group working to update the “stay put” policy.

Mr Roe replaced Dany Cotton, who was forced to retire last December, several months earlier than planned, after she lost the support of the Mayor and Grenfell survivors. He declined to comment on her departure.

He is one of six members of his extended family serving as London firefighters. The former Army officer and keen boxer lives in Bromley and considers himself a “working class London boy”.

Unlike Ms Cotton, who retired aged 50, he is not due to retire until he is 60. “I’m here for the long term,” he said. “I’m here to see the change through.”

An edited version of this interview appears in the Evening Standard.

MPs to plead with Government to fund bulk of £120m Hammersmith bridge repairs as first £25m starts to run out

Tags

Andy Slaughter, Hammersmith, Hammersmith bridge, TfL

Hammersmith bridge before cyclists access was arranged

A bid to for Government funds to prevent repair work to Hammersmith bridge grinding to a halt is desperately needed, according to MPs.

The 133-year-old cast iron bridge was closed to vehicles in April last year after safety concerns about its structure.

Transport for London has provided £25m for initial surveys and for a temporary bridge for pedestrians and cyclists when the main bridge, which they can still access, has to be fully closed.

A Westminster Hall debate in Parliament tomorrow is expected to hear MPs urge the Government to underwrite the remainder of the bill, which could reach £120m in total.

The latest update on the bridge from Hammersmith and Fulham council is here.

Andy Slaughter, the Labour MP for Hammersmith, fears the repair work will soon have to stop unless more cash is found.

Hammersmith and Fulham council wants work to begin in earnest in Spring 2021. It is expected to take three years to complete. When finished, cars and single deck electric buses would be able to use the bridge.

Mr Slaughter said keeping the bridge closed to traffic permanently was “unrealistic” due to the disruption it caused to communities on either side of the Thames.

TfL said work to design the temporary bridge was progressing and that the main bridge would only be closed to cyclists and pedestrians when it was open.

Liverpool fan Sadiq Khan urges Londoners to re-elect him mayor: ‘I’m hoping it’s a great year for the Reds’

Labour mayor and Liverpool fan Sadiq Khan says he is “hoping it’s a great year for the Reds” as he urged Londoners to re-elect him in May.

Mr Khan said he needed more time to deliver “meaningful change” as he said he was proud of what he had achieved in his first term.

Speaking to the Evening Standard yesterday as he headed to Brussels to call for pro-Europe Londoners to be allowed “associate citizenship of the EU”, Mr Khan was asked whether the mayoral race was akin to the race for the Premier League title.

Liverpool are 25 points ahead and heading for their first championship in 30 years. A QMUL poll late last year put Mr Khan more than 20 points ahead of Tory rival Shaun Bailey.

Mr Khan told me: “If Jurgen [Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp] was here he would explain that actually nothing is won yet. You don’t take anything for granted. The most important thing is to focus on the prize and continue doing your best.

“That is what I intend to do as somebody who wants to achieve the summit like Liverpool will do and I’m hoping it’s a great year for the Reds, whether it’s the Labour mayor of London or Jurgen’s Red Army in Liverpool.”

With about 90 days until the May 7 election, and his rivals active on social media, was it approaching “squeaky bum time”?

Mr Khan said: “The most important poll is the one on May 7. Polls will say different things. They thing is that it is a two-horse race between me and Boris Johnson’s Tory candidate. Only one of us is going to be the Mayor.

“What I’m saying to those who support the Greens and those who support the Lib-Dems is lend me your vote on May 7 to endure that Boris Johnson’s guy doesn’t become the Mayor.”

(Mr Khan has been criticised by Green candidate Sian Berry for, in her view, misleading voters about the two votes they can cast for their first and second choice candidates.)

Asked how the current campaign compared to that four years ago, when his main rival was Tory Zac Goldsmith, he said: “A big difference is I don’t need to explain to every journalist what being a Muslim means, or the fact that being a Muslim doesn’t necessarily mean you are a terrorist or a terrorist sympathiser.

“It’s quite nice not to have to talk about my faith or my family or my previous career as a lawyer.”

Mr Khan then launched unprompted into a breathless rendition of his “greatest hits” as Mayor – with barely a moment’s hesitation, repetition or deviation.

He may never make it onto Just A Minute but prepare to hear more of the same as polling day approaches.

He said: “The key thing I’m focusing on over the next few weeks as the campaign begins is my delivery – I’m very proud of some of the things we have achieved in relation to air quality. The world’s first ultra low emission zone – we have reduced nitrogen dioxide by a third.

“I’m really proud of the fact we’ve got the Night Tube and Night Overground running. I’m really proud of the fact we have frozen TfL fares, when they rose by 42 per cent under the previous guy [Boris Johnson]. I’m really proud we have got the unlimited Hopper [bus fare].

“I’m really proud we started last year more council homes than 1994. In three years in a row we have broken the records for the most number of genuinely affordable homes begun, after ditching the dodgy definition.

“I’m really proud we have been tough on crime and tough on the causes. We have seen knife crime injuries in under 25s go down last year by 10 per cent. Homicides this year are going down. Moped crime is going down. Acid attacks are going down. We have invested huge sums in young Londoners and also the police.

“I’m really proud the progress we are making in standing up for London’s values, whether it’s against Donald Trump, Boris Johnson or anybody else.

“Progress has been made but you need much more time to bring meaningful change. I’m looking forward to Londoners allowing me to finish the job with re-electing me in term two.”

Sadiq announces £1,600 boost for London bus drivers if they stick to the road

Tags

buses, Sadiq Khan

Son of a bus driver: Sadiq Khan announces pay bonus for bus drivers

Bus drivers will receive a £1,000 bonus if they stay in the job for two years in a £34m bid to halt rising vacancy rates.

About 30 per cent of drivers quit in their first 24 months and bus operators find keeping staff increasingly challenging.

Mayor Sadiq Khan today announced the incentives, which includes a further £600 for drivers staying in the job for three years. About 20,000 drivers are likely to benefit.

Drivers who have already completed three years’ service when the scheme comes into effect from April will be entitled to £1,600 in a single payment. Part-time drivers will get pro-rata bonuses.

Mr Khan, whose dad drove the 44 bus, said: “I’m really proud to launch this new reward and retention initiative which… will help us to retain more experienced bus drivers and deliver a better service for passengers and drivers.”

The move is in addition to new London bus drivers being paid a minimum wage of £25,530 from April.

Bus companies claim that Brexit and the weak pound are making it more difficult to recruit drivers from abroad.

Unite regional officer John Murphy said: “This is an enormous step forward in tackling high dropout rates among London bus drivers.

“It is now even more important that London bus operators step up to the plate and take action to ensure workers aren’t permanently ‘sick and tired’ which is a huge factor in drivers leaving the profession.”

Diana Holland, Unite assistant general secretary, said: “Unite is seeking action like this across the country to end the ‘race to the bottom’ for bus workers.”

• An edited version of this story appears in the Evening Standard.

Milk Tray Mayor: 1,000 Londoners in a day apply to sleep with Rory Stewart

Tags

Mayoral elections 2020, Rory Stewart

More than 1,000 people have invited mayoral candidate Rory Stewart to sleep on their floor overnight to share their experiences of London.

Mr Stewart, a former soldier and diplomat, yesterday launched a “come kip with me” initiative to gain an insight into the lives of ordinary Londoners and what they would like changed.

Today the former Tory cabinet minister pledged to continue the initiative if elected on May 7.

“If I’m lucky enough to be Mayor I would try to do this every week… I would do a different borough, getting out from the desk at City Hall,” he told Sky News.

Mr Stewart, who promised to turn up with a sleeping bag and box of chocolates, said he would ensure the offers he accepted represented the diversity of London. Asked about needing a lot of chocolates, he told Sky’s Kay Burley: “It will be Milk Tray for you.”

He stayed with 500 families while working in Afghanistan. Last week he stayed with Lorraine Tabone, who runs Lola’s Homeless, to learn about the help she gives to homeless people in Newham.

“For me, there is all the difference in the world between someone saying there is a problem with knife crime or violence in Newham and staying with Lorraine and her taking me to the chicken shop where somebody was shot,” he said.

“Over the last few weeks and months I have been walking around London and staying with people. There is nothing like it – staying with somebody and seeing things through their eyes. You get an insight into someone’s life you can’t get just from knocking on the door.”