London Mayoral hopeful Festus Akinbusoye appeared at a special live recording of The Rundown podcast at Conservative conference
3 min read19 min
A Tory in the running to be the party’s London mayoral candidate has said he wants to ban playing music out loud on public transport.
Festus Akinbusoye said people “don’t want to hear” music and loudspeaker phone calls on Tube carriages and buses as he pledged to increase the number of inspectors on London’s transport network to deal with anti-social behaviour.
Speaking to PoliticsHome podcast The Rundown at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, the former police and crime commissioner said he recently confronted someone playing music on the Tube, describing it as “one of my biggest bugbears on the train”.
Current railway byelaws already ban many forms of anti-social behaviour, with offenders facing a fine of up to £1,000.
However, there are growing calls for stronger action to tackle anti-social behaviour on London’s transport system, including people taking calls and playing music out loud.
Akinbusoye, a Westminster City Councillor, said there are not enough Transport for London (TfL) staff employed to deal with it. Describing the current state of graffiti on the Tube as “pathetic”, he said he would increase the number of TfL inspectors if he were to succeed Labour’s Sadiq Khan as mayor.
“You need to have a lot more of those enforcement officers just to be able to patrol around the network, because it also makes people feel safe,” he told the podcast.
“The visibility reassures people, and we can’t have this situation where you have TfL staff who just stand and say they can’t do anything because their hands are tied behind their backs.
“We’re not asking people to get involved in fisticuffs with people, but just that visible presence makes a big difference.”
He also joked that he knew “some police dogs that would do a very good job” on people who break into rail depots to spray graffiti on trains.
Asked about specifically outlawing music or videos being played by so-called “headphone dodgers”, he said: “I’m thinking about it, definitely.”
Akinbusoye, whose rivals in the contest for the Tory nomination include former home and foreign secretary James Cleverly, added: “We don’t want to hear your music. If you want to listen to Stormzy, Stormzy is nice, but we don’t want to hear it.
“If you want to listen to Central Cee, that’s fine. If you want to listen to Dolly Parton, that’s okay. But, really, we don’t want to hear your music on the tube, nor your conversation with your grandma as well.”
He also said he wanted to crack down on fare evasion, which he said had wiped out all of the extra revenue made from the rise in ticket prices.
“You’ve just literally paid for people to break the law in London,” Akinbusoye added.
When asked if he would do something about people who put “dirty feet” on train seats, he joked: “You are really triggering me now.”
Akinbusoye said he would make housebuilding a central plank of his campaign to run the capital, warning that so many young families are being priced out of London that in a decade you’ll be as likely to see a dodo in the capital as a five-year-old.
“The median income in London is about £40,000. The median house price is about £500,000…
“We have got serious problems, and it’s no surprise that we’ve got schools closing down in London. We’ve got maternity wards closing down in London.”
The Rundown is presented by Alain Tolhurst, and is produced and edited by Lulu Goad and Ewan Cameron for Podot
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