Andrew Dismore

Andrew Dismore, Labour Parliamentary candidate for Hendon and  London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden yesterday challenged Mayor Boris Johnson over his secret plans to cut education and youth services by 90%.

When Mr Dismore confronted the Mayor with his GLA policy paper at Mayor’s Question Time , the Mayor firstly denied all knowledge of it (even though it is clearly branded as a GLA document) , refused to rule out such cuts, and having  lost his temper  under Mr Dismore’s questioning, told Mr Dismore to ‘stick it up your…’ (video link: https://vimeo.com/112373674 or http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-30119475 ).

After MQT Mr Dismore said:

‘I appear to have touched a raw nerve. However, the paper is clear. It is headed ‘Education and Youth Forward Planning’. Paragraph 1.1 states ‘we are forecasting a 90% reduction in GLA managed investment in education and youth’; and concludes by stating ‘we need to manage expectations’– in other words public relations cover for these cuts.

‘What makes it even worse, is that the Mayor is planning to use charitable donations to cover up his cuts. Para 4.4 of the paper states that ‘next steps’ include ‘influence Mayor’s Fund for London plans to support young people’, cross referring back to para  2.12, where the report forecasts that the charitable Fund’s income will increase due to the new ‘Penny for London’ campaign launched only a few weeks ago by the Evening Standard. I bet when the Standard started the campaign, they did not know of the  Mayor’s plan to use its readers’ charitable donations in such an underhand way, to plug the gaps he is creating.

‘The paper also makes clear the impact of the end of three large projects, the disproportionate consequences for the most vulnerable groups of young people, and that there is  increasing concern over 17+ achievement ,  the low numbers of apprenticeships, and high numbers of children living in poverty.

‘The Mayor has been found out, and it is  disgraceful that despite being repeatedly asked to do so,  he was not prepared to rule out such draconian cuts which will have such serious consequences on London’s young people ’.