Andrew Dismore accused the mayor of having lied to Londoners about the impact that the closure of ten fire stations would have. Johnson responded loudly, “Oh, get stuffed,” which prompted a wave of cries from Assembly members and the gallery.
The debate was already a particularly vigorous one on the scale of London politics, with members of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) protesting in the gallery and saying that deaths from fire in the capital were actually going up. He reportedly slapped this remark down as being “completely wrong” before muttering “bollocks” under his breath.
London’s mayor recently approved the closure of ten fire stations and the loss of around 500 firefighter posts across the city, despite the fact that the majority of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority voted against the proposals. However, a two-thirds majority is needed to overrule any decisions by the mayor.
The number of fires that the London Fire Brigade (LFB) attends has been reduced by half in the past ten years, and the LFB disputes the FBU’s claims that 4 million Londoners will see slower response times from their fire service.
Mr. Johnson was immediately called on to withdraw his remark to Dismore, and he apologised. “It just popped out. I’m very sorry,” he said.
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Nice one Boris,
It would seem that London is in very safe hands (or not).. I guess that London Fire Cuts are far less important to Boris than his addictive cycling campaigns..
I suggest that “get stuffed” was exactly what he meant to say and his half hearted apology is worthless.
…merely adding to the myth that is Boris. Could you imagine Cameron or Osborne geting away with it?
His cycling campaigns result in people being maimed and crushed to death since London is not the right place to copycat Amsterdam. And you expect him to care about saving lives from fires? He looks innocent in pictures though…
As a London cyclist I’d say that the number of cyclists on London’s roads has increased massively and the deaths has lowered in the last 10 years, so I don’t think you can say the mayor’s cycle campaigns have caused such chaos. Evening Standard last month: “In 2002, there were around 110 million cycle journeys in London, of which 20 ended in death. In 2012, there were around 180 million bike journeys, of which 14 ended in death.”
How that impacts on his opinions on fire I can’t say, but let’s get the facts around cycling right.
Well this is what gets me. He’s capable of surviving numerous gaffes, it’s a skill that no politician seems to have!
Boris is naive and careless about safety of lives however, he has won a second term , meaning he is doing something right in the london community
Gbrown, I would agree that the man has his faults, but he’s got a lot of good points and he stands by his beliefs. That’s not something you can say about everyone in the political scene. I don’t necessarily agree with him all the time, but I do share his sentiments on the fire cuts.
Gerry_dunphy, exactly. To be honest, my answer to that would be no. I don’t think many can get away with what Boris did here.
Good point, Rob. I don’t think Boris is to be blamed for vehicular-related incidents. It’s like blaming the manufacturer of blenders for people who accidentally maim themselves or get injured while using it. People have to be held liable at some point; you can’t just pin everything on the policymakers.
I agree ITs_Hazel and I know we will not all agree with some of his views and strategies , all the same as you said he stands for things he says
We shouldn’t confuse Boris’ position on cycling with fire safety.
Boris’ cheeky charisma certainly allows him to get away with murder. in some ways the position he occupies – London Mayor – gives him some license for gaffs. Ken Livingstone certainly had his fair share.
Even Boris knows that such leeway would not be tolerated if he ever stepped up to PM. I can’t imagine he’d last long if he told Putin he was talking bollocks.
Well, it at least means he’s popular, and Mayoral elections more than anything else come down to personality!
I’d LOVE to see that!
Aren’t we missing bigger things here, though? How about Crossrail for instance, how much does that cost? There’s a lot of money out there on big projects, all squeezing away at things like fire budgets. But then, the fact is that London, more than almost any other fire service, has been able to protect the front line from cuts so far. Eventually, there were always going to be some. On such a scale though, seems wrong