Ken Livingstone explains why Londoners should re-elect him on 1 May arguing Tory rival Boris Johnson just isn't capable of running the UK capital
For many Londoners, the mayoral election appears as a choice between my record of delivering for London and Boris Johnson's affable TV personality but evident lack of competence to run one of the world's largest cities.
This has been epitomised by the contrast between the transformation of London’s bus services over the past 8 years, and the utter chaos of Boris Johnson’s flagship policy to introduce new Routemaster buses with conductors, which he now admits would cost over £100m, not the £8m he originally claimed.
Tory cuts in police numbers in the 1990s led to a crime wave, with a 70% increase in murder and rape. We started to reverse this with 10,000 additional uniformed police officers, which allowed us to put the police back on the local beat. This has cut London's crime for five years in a row, reduced murder by 28%, and allowed a realistic target of continuing crime reduction by 6% a year. Racist attacks have been cut by over 50% in eight years.
My policy that 50% of all new housing in London must be affordable is working, with house-building almost doubling. London's climate change action plan is the most advanced in the world. The £25-a-day charge for gas guzzlers entering central London is another groundbreaking environmental policy.
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