Andrew Dismore

London Mayor Boris Johnson was today urged to “focus on his day job”. The call came following statistics from the National Audit Office showing that London will be in need of 88,000 more primary school places by 2014/15. Leader of the Labour Group on the London Assembly, Len Duvall AM, is calling on the Mayor to use his position to lobby government for the resources needed for educating Londoner’s children.

Nationally the need is 240,000 primary school places with London accounting for 37% of the total national need. The National Audit Office also made clear that they are unsure as to whether the current level of funding proposed by the Department for Education will be sufficient to meet the demand.

Leader of the Labour Group on the London Assembly Len Duvall AM said:

“This data confirms what we already knew. In the past Boris has chosen to speak out about London’s schools and champion their cause. The time has come for him to back London parents and join me in calling for a reinstatement of the Building Schools for the Future programme that was cancelled by the government.

“Boris should be focussing on getting a good deal for Londoners and fast-tracking arrangements to deal with this crisis. Instead he is off promoting his book in Paris. This week he handed over unprecedented spending and decision making powers to unelected advisers and political appointees at City Hall. Boris’ attention increasingly seems to be elsewhere. Less than a year into this new administration he is easing up on the job and getting ready to leave City Hall.

“His decision to hand over further powers to senior unelected officials also raises serious questions about transparency at City Hall. We will be looking into this in more detail to ensure that Londoners can scrutinise decisions and spending commitments that are taken in their Mayor’s name.”