It was only in February 2016 that Sadiq Khan promised that there would be “zero days of strikes” if he was elected Mayor. “Strikes are ultimately a sign of failure,” he said. “Every day there’s a strike it caused huge misery and inconvenience to Londoners.”

“As Mayor,” he continued, “what I’d do is roll up my sleeves and make sure that I’m talking to everyone who runs public transport to make sure there are zero days of strikes. 16 was too many and 35 is a disgrace.” 

Today, with a 24/7 all line strike, he has equalled those records combined. On Thursday, if yet another strike goes ahead, he will overtake them. 

No doubt Sadiq Khan will delusionally claim that he is doing a better job than his predecessors. In reality, he is failing in all the key areas. He has not even started building half of the affordable homes he promised, despite being given a nearly £9bn grant from the Government. The number of crimes unsolved is at a record high, with 30 tragic teenage murders last year – another terrible record. 

It’s important to remember that these strikes are primarily over four swappable night shifts a year – the deal on the table does not include pension changes or job losses. That the RMT are holding London to ransom over such a condition – one that the other unions, ASLEF and TSSA, have accepted – speaks to just how badly the Mayor is failing us. 

Far from convincing the person on the street that they are in the right, the present situation has highlighted how much extended strike action harms the London economy and how TfL pensions really do need looking at. Sadiq Khan still says that the changes to the pension scheme are not on the table, and whilst that is currently true, they soon will be. The Mayor has been repeatedly told by Grant Shapps that the pension scheme requires urgent reform and will be a condition of further funding. It is virtue-signalling to say that it won’t be on the table in order to get RMT to agree to stop striking, which clearly isn’t working. 

Let’s also remember that Sadiq Khan agreed to a non-negotiable RMT tube driver pay rise of RPI +0.2, equalling a real term pay rise of over 8%. Why was this not capped? This went against the advice of even senior TFL management. It was incredibly short-sighted not to add in an upper limit. To give it some context, our hardworking NHS staff are looking at a mere 3% rise. He insisted on there being no cap to avoid strikes. Look where that got us. 

My Conservative colleagues and I on the London Assembly have a plan to remove RMT’s grip on hardworking Londoners. Binding Pendulum Arbitration would give TfL and the relevant union the chance to give their best offer on a disagreement to an independent judge, who would then decide which of those two options was more reasonable. It would thus give both sides an incentive to be reasonable. Transport workers who believed they are being treated unfairly would have a method of seeking redress, but without seeking to blackmail London and stop Londoners getting to and from work. We have repeatedly called on Sadiq Khan to seriously consider his options. 

In the meantime, today’s strike is a stark reminder of Khan’s London: inefficient, expensive, and inconvenient for those who deserve better – its citizens.

Keith Prince is the Conservative London Assembly member for Havering and Redbridge