Tory cuts to Crossrail would be a disaster – only Labour will make the right investment for London

By Ken Livingstone

The Conservatives’ confirmation that it is possible that Crossrail may be cancelled under a Cameron government is dynamite for London politics.

On the ITV debate last night Gordon Brown was right to say that when private investment has collapsed in the way we have seen then public spending and investment must be protected. Crossrail is an example of a project that not only maintains public investment but will reap huge rewards for our economy. It will add 10% to London’s transport capacity, create 14,000 jobs in the construction period alone and add an estimated £20billion to London’s economy. This in turn will bring huge benefit to the British economy and to the public finances. It is not a small matter.

The Tories are in an almighty mess because they will not give a clear commitment to deliver it – and now their Shadow London Minister has confirmed that it is possible they may scrap it. “I can’t give a guarantee that it will continue,” she told Nick Ferrari on LBC 97.3 yesterday.

It is an extraordinary state of affairs that any political party could go into this election without a clear position on Crossrail. But on Crossrail Cameron and Osborne have been engaged in chicanery.

They used a mealy-mouthed formulation in their manifesto that merely said they ‘support’ Crossrail, without any clarity about when, how and on what route.

The underlying, real, Conservative position has been bubbling away for some considerable time.

Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers confirmed in February that Crossrail will be up for review under a Tory government, saying that “any project will have to come under review after the election. I would say the Crossrail project will be included in that review as well.”

Going back further, the London Evening Standard’s political editor Joe Murphy reported last July that Shadow Chancellor George Osborne was reserving the right to “go over the plans” for Crossrail and was refusing to give an unequivocal commitment that it will go ahead to the same budget and timetable as currently planned.

The Standard declared at the time:

“It bodes ill for London, then, that the [Conservative] party is refusing to guarantee funding for Crossrail, the long-delayed rail-link between Heathrow and Stratford. They should think again…”

The Tory manifesto commitment of just three words, none of them a commitment to complete the project on the same route, budget and timetable as planned, was the latest instalment of this exercise in trying to hoodwink London.

Trickery of this kind can collapse like a house of cards in the right circumstances – which is what happened when Nick Ferrari pressed Justine Greening yesterday on LBC. Justine Greening has said publicly and on the record what was implicit in the Tory position for months.

Any review of the financing could endanger the whole project by delaying it or re-opening settled debates. But even short of that the Tories may also be preparing to get their axes out and start chopping whole parts of the route out of the existing plans.

It is unreasonable to refuse to say where you stand on an infrastructure project of this scale and importance. Voters are entitled to know before polling day.

Justine Greening says the party cannot commit until after the election:

“I’m an accountant and I know I could never write a budget for a company I had not started work in.”

This is pure nonsense. The Tories have had no trouble giving other commitments – such as an inheritance tax cut for the richest estates in the country.

It shows with perfect clarity the choice on offer. Whereas the Tories say it is possible that Crossrail will be cancelled, Labour promises “We will complete the new east-west Crossrail line in London adding 10% to London transport capacity.”

We saw in last night’s TV debate that when pressed over spending – such as on policing or schools – or over NHS guarantees, Cameron has no convincing answer. A policy of investing, not cutting, is the right way forward for London.