SADIQ Khan has taken a 10 per cent pay cut to help plug the huge budget black hole in London’s finances – and warns he could have to slash police funding too.
The London Mayor will take a £15,000 cut to his own £150,000 pay – and he will freeze the pay of 15 of his political appointments too to help pay for the coronavirus crisis.
The move will pile pressure on Boris Johnson and other members of his top team to slash their own pay too.
He demanded the UK Government step up with more funding for London – just weeks after a huge multibillion pound deal was signed off by ministers.
Mr Khan blamed TfL fares dropping and less council tax coming in thanks to reductions over the pandemic period.
He said the Government was “punishing them with a new era of austerity” and warned he would have to cut police to pay for it.
Mr Khan said: “Unless Ministers act, the current number of police officers will need to be reduced and it will be impossible to tackle youth violence or make the changes to the London Fire Brigade that are desperately needed after the awful Grenfell Tower tragedy.
“Whatever happens I will protect the frontline services that Londoners depend on as much as possible – and it’s only right that I should volunteer for an immediate pay cut in these extremely difficult circumstances and continue not to take any pension contributions.
“In addition, I have taken the decision to freeze the salaries of my political appointments at City Hall.”
Ministers want to recruit an extra 20,000 new officers across the UK to help tackle the crime wave which has hit Britain in recent years.
But the Mayor says the huge £493m hole in TfL, the Met Police and the Greater London Authority could put that all at risk.
Boris Johnson has promised there will be no return to austerity in the coming months as the country gets back on its feet following the pandemic.
But at the moment there are no firm plans about how all the extra funding for schools, the health service, and the Government’s jobs protection scheme, will be paid for.
Earlier this week new rules came into place which force the public ot wear masks on any form of transport across the country.
Mr Khan warned they will become the new normal – possibly for as long as a year.
