Speaking at a London Assembly meeting, Susan Hall asked the mayor if he would “like to say sorry” to businesses across the capital being forced to “lay off staff” because of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ hike in employers’ national insurance contributions.“I can’t run away from the fact that one of the inheritances of the new Government is a black hole to the tune of £22bn,” said Sir Sadiq Khan. “There’s two ways to fill a black hole.”As he spoke, Ms Hall could be heard murmuring into her microphone: “I’d love to throw him in it.”
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00:00You were saying earlier that if Boris hadn't frozen council tax, then there'd be a lot more money and yet you freeze fares, if you hadn't done that, there'd be an extra billion pounds in TfL.
00:15So I really think you ought to think whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. It's obviously bad when the Tories do it, when Boris got things right.
00:22You've got to stop going on about things that happened nearly nine years ago, Mr Mayor, and start taking responsibility.
00:35And since it's been brought up in this section, do you feel sorry for all the thousands and thousands of businesses in London who are going to have to find this employers' national insurance?
00:46They can't rely on the government to give them the money. Do you feel sorry for them and do you apologise to them for having a rotten Labour government that is costing businesses a fortune?
00:56I'm sure you'll give me the latitude to deal with the seven points raised in that question by Assembly Member Hall.
01:02No, I just said do you feel sorry for them.
01:05We've found one person that's still a fan of Boris Johnson.
01:07Yes, you have actually.
01:10Let's deal with fares between 2008 and 2016. Fares in TfL went up by 42% between 2008 and 2016.
01:21Since I've been Mayor, compared to inflation, they're 21% less. On buses, they're 23% less than they would be if it went up by just inflation.
01:30God knows what they'd have gone up by if, heaven forbid, Boris Johnson was Mayor.
01:36You'd be doing a better job than you are, Mr Mayor. Can you just answer that?
01:39Would you like to say sorry to all the businesses in London who are going to have to lay off staff, that's Londoners, because of this national insurance employment hike?
01:50Would you like to do that briefly because you're letting us only have an hour of your precious time?
01:56Each year between 2008 and 2016, like-for-like operating costs in TfL went up.
02:01It's only since 2016 that like-for-like operating costs have gone down.
02:06And what's really important is those businesses want a good public transport system in London, which is what we are providing.
02:14I can't run away from the fact, though, that one of the inheritances of the new government is a black hole to the tune of £22 billion.
02:22There's two ways to fill a black hole. You either raise more revenues or you make cuts.
02:27What the government's going to do is both of those things to make the books balance.
02:31We know, though, it is possible to run a good public transport system, as we do with TfL, at the same time providing good value for money and also reducing fares.
02:40OK, so you won't say sorry to all those businesses that are going to have to lay off staff. Thank you, Chairman.