Bob Crow and Boris Johnson to meet head to head for first time on this week’s “Any Questions.”

* Friday 25 March, 8pm, BBC Radio 4 *

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow and London Mayor Boris Johnson will meet head to head for the first time this week when they both appear as guests on the BBC’s “Any Questions” which is being broadcast from Kingston Grammar School in Surrey.

In almost three years as London Mayor, Boris Johnson has refused to meet directly with the tube unions despite a massive financial crisis leading to staffing and maintenance cuts and repeated breakdowns on the Underground’s creaking infrastructure.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“With the focus in the run up to Saturday’s big TUC demo all on this Government’s cuts agenda there can be no better time for the Mayor of London to at last agree to have a proper discussion, in public, with a tube union official.

“This isn’t about personalities, it’s about a proper debate about exactly where Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party, and the Government that they lead are taking key services like transport.

“Boris Johnson has been a staunch defender of the banks and the City speculators who created this crisis and has even used gatherings of the well-heeled at places like the Mansion House to advocate ill-conceived and dangerous plans like driverless tube trains.

“This week on Any Questions we can at last get some balance into the discussion and I live in hope that it will open the door to further meetings aimed at sorting out the daily chaos on London’s tube system.”