Beware: Pickpocket Operating On Public Transport

At a time when many households are crunching the numbers on their household budgets the maths is pretty straight forward when it comes to travel fares in London. The current Conservative Mayor of London has increased fares by an extra seven per cent this month. He has put London’s travel fares up every year he has been in office and by many times more than inflation. Some fares have risen by as much as 56%.The Conservative Mayor has pledged to continue to do this until 2017.

Labour’s candidate to be London’s Mayor has pledged to cut fares by seven per cent if elected in May. That will save the average household at least £800.

The full scale of the Conservatives' fare rises over the last four years may not have been absolutely clear to everyone - that's the nature of stealth taxes. People may have been aware their wallets are a little lighter or that they had a little less cash to spend but they may not have clocked the exact amounts this crafty stealth tax ruse was lifting from their pockets. So Ken Livingstone’s silhouette of the all too familiar Conservative London Mayor reaching into a commuter's bag is spot on. The metaphor works. And, rather than simply criticise, Labour is offering voters the opportunity to get their money back by cutting fares and halting Mayor Johnson’s planned extra fare hikes.