As news broke this week of another above-inflation fare rise of 3.5 per cent, millions of Londoners (and others) will have asked themselves whether they are receiving value for money. Fares have risen by 42 per cent across London since the election of Boris Johnson in 2008, 17.5 per cent above inflation, with little substantial improvement in quality of service across the network.

This dire example is not the only part of the Mayor’s record that is considerably underwhelming; his work on air pollution, housing, crime and regeneration of deprived areas following the 2011 riots has shown a lack of care and a duplicity that the public increasingly loathes in the political class.

So why does he remain so popular? The main reason is obvious. Johnson has portrayed himself as the bumbling fool, his antics ranging from getting stuck on a zip wire to throwing basketballs backwards over his head. Because of these stunts, he is rarely questioned as a politician, indeed interviews with him often concern his character rather than dealing with policy issues. He of course reaps the benefit of our celebrity culture – the public see him as a celebrity rather than a politician; his disingenuous foolishness is a political ploy, a façade that belies his calculating political ambitions. This is naturally only possible due to a complicit media who are more interested in creating a ‘character’ to interest the public and sell newspapers than to investigate in depth his policy failures.

The other reason is his shameless manipulation of other’s ideas into part of the programme of ‘brand Boris’. The prime example is of course ‘Boris bikes’, referring to the cycle hire scheme sponsored by Barclays that Johnson has cynically taken the credit for, despite the fact that Ken Livingstone investigated and instigated the programme before Johnson took office. This is just one example of how ‘brand Boris’ manipulates ideas that belonged to other people in order to gain publicity; the truth is distorted for political gain with little regard for anything else. The same is true of ‘Boris Island’, the Thames Estuary airport that had been proposed by myriad other political figures since the 1970s; Johnson and his friends in the media have exploited this pre-existing idea for media coverage. Despite the fact that the idea’s costs were grossly underestimated and it was totally ignorant of the huge amount of environmental damage that would occur if the plan were implemented, it is important to remember that this idea did fulfil its purpose. It has generated a huge number of column inches, allowing the mayor to remain in the papers for months on end and predicating the notion that the mayor is a leader of vision and radicalism.

It is not simply his methods for achieving political coverage that should be under closer scrutiny, however. Analysing his record in London is equally imperative both to establish what Boris Johnson’s tenure as prime minister could be like and to reveal the particular issues that face his successor in the role.

Firstly, as seems appropriate considering the recent fare rises, his record on transport must be scrutinised. The 17.5 per cent above-inflation increase in rail fares since 2008 is indicative of the wider issues facing Londoners at this time: soaring energy bills, increased transport costs and declining wages have created a squeeze on the poorest in London that Johnson has failed to tackle. It is important to remember that these higher transport fees are particularly damaging as they take a disproportionately higher percentage away from those on low incomes in London. Moreover, Boris committed, in both his 2008 manifesto and in 2010, to keeping ticket offices at tube stations open, he later reversed this decision leading to strikes in April 2014. This is another example of the mayor’s duplicity but his unequivocal statement of his position is the real issue here. This misleading promise led to outrage and a strike by the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers’ Union that could otherwise have been avoided. In the longer term, a paper presented to Transport for London revealed that there will be 60 per cent more congestion in central London by 2031 as well as 25 per cent more congestion in inner London. This is certainly the clearest evidence that his transport policies have failed to encourage a sufficient level of public transport usage and has exposed that his populist ploy of reducing congestion charging across London will have long-term negative effects for London.

Secondly, Boris Johnson’s record on crime should come under scrutiny. This must however be considered in the context of declining crime across both the United Kingdom over the recent past, the long-term trend of declining crime in London and in the context of similar trends across other western countries. As a result, the issues presented under Johnson’s tenure encompass specific problems that he has failed to deal with. The British Transport Police recently released figures identifying a 10 per cent increase in crimes on the tube in the past year, including 55 per cent more drug arrests, 20 per cent more sexual offences and an increase in crimes against the person. This appears to be a particularly sharp rise over the past year and the mayor, who has even greater control over London policing than he did before Ian Blair’s tenure, must bear the responsibility for this. Furthermore, the £70m regeneration fund for areas affected by the 2011 London riots that was introduced has still had just 16 per cent of its funding used, underlining the lack of care that Johnson takes in dealing with important issues around crime. Finally, his investment in three water cannon for £218,000 was an unnecessary measure that weakens the principle of unarmed policing, one of the few elements of British policing that the public should – and do ­– remain proud of.

Finally, the mayor’s record on housing: this has been symptomatic of the failures that have existed in the housing policies of successive governments in its inadequacies over the expansion of affordable housing stock. The modest target of building 55,000 affordable homes in London by April 2015 will not be achieved, at the very earliest it will be completed by December 2015 and will also include 1,400 houses that were not funded by the Greater London Authority. This again shows the mayor’s lack of commitment in dealing with issues facing poorer Londoners and his suggestions of smaller, more eye-catching policies such as a floating village expose the fact that he is a politician who cares more about headlines than helping vulnerable people. Indeed, Johnson was recently revealed to be sitting on nearly £400m of cash for affordable homes because his plans for affordable housing fail to adequately serve the most vulnerable residents of London. This is indicative of a wider failing to deal with issues that face those most at risk in London – those whom government has the greatest duty to protect because they are at the greatest chance of harm. It is the responsibility of any elected representative to act in a way that protects the entirety of the electorate that they represent: Johnson has conclusively failed in that endeavour.

When the record of this London mayor is analysed in depth, certainly in greater depth than I am able to manage in a short article such as this, the evidence is clear on his record. Johnson may have far more of a personality than any of the other frontbench politicians currently in Westminster, but this does not mean that he should either be excused close scrutiny by journalists or should evade rigorous questioning on his record during his eight year tenure. He is charismatic, charming and witty but this does not mean he should be allowed to avoid facing tough questions or giving unequivocal answers to those questions. In truth, Boris Johnson’s popularity comes down to a series of stunts, spin and self-interest.

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Photo: Hammersmith and Fulham council