Tory Mayoral candidate claims he'll deliver a better deal for Londoners.

Boris Johnson MP

ANDREW MARR: Welcome. Thank you very much indeed...

BORIS JOHNSON: Thank you Andrew.

ANDREW MARR: .. for coming into the, into the studio. Let's talk about some of the policies first of all that you're going to be unveiling one by one.

If you look at the opinion polls London, actually like Britain as a whole, puts crime very, very high up there.

Sixty odd per cent say it's their, it's their top priority.

BORIS JOHNSON: Yes.

ANDREW MARR: Boris Johnson, I was going to say Ken Livingstone has put in lots more police. You say you'll put in lots more police.

BORIS JOHNSON: Yeah.

ANDREW MARR: What else can be done?

BORIS JOHNSON: Well crime of course will be the top of my priorities but I don't want you to run away with the idea that's the only thing ..

ANDREW MARR: No, no.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. I'm going to be concentrating on, so we're going to make one more wonderful ..

ANDREW MARR: We'll come on to the others later.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. more comfortable housing, we're going to improve transport. But on crime I do feel that, you know, it's a fantastic place to live, and I love the city.

But if I think back to when I was a kid growing up on the streets of Camden, it's a lot rougher now or a lot scarier, put it that way, than it was, whenever it was, thirty five years ago. And I think there are things we can do about that. And the first and most obvious thing is to get more police out on the beat. And in spite of what the current mayor says I think numbers of full time police officers are actually down this year on last year.

And we can do much, much better by getting rid of the form filling which we all know about and getting those people out on the street providing security and reassurance where we want them. And it can mean getting the PCSOs, the Community Support Officers in the back room filling out some of those forms and liberating the warranted officers to do what they want to do. But there's one problem in particular that I think the mayor could be addressing and which I think he's treating as trivial and that is the problem of instability, rowdiness, violence often on the buses. And I want to start with that today.

Because if you look at all the evidence about crime, if you can tackle smaller crimes and if you can be deterred from committing a smaller crime it's very unlikely that you will then go on to commit more serious offences. And there are loads of people on buses who are kicking up and frankly intimidating other passengers. And I want to suggest what we can do about it.

ANDREW MARR: Which is?

BORIS JOHNSON: Which is that we should take away the Oyster cards from the tiny minority who are abusing their privilege. Now it is a small minority and I don't want to sound too draconian or bullying because I think it's a great privilege that people have and they value it. But ...

ANDREW MARR: It doesn't seem a huge, huge thing to do to them to take away their Oyster cards.

BORIS JOHNSON: It is, believe me because I think if people knew that systematically they were going to be deprived of this privilege then they would be much less willing to intimidate other passengers.

And you should take the buses around London Andrew, you should talk to people ..

ANDREW MARR: I do. I take buses all the time.

BORIS JOHNSON: It is, it is a very serious issue and we can't be complacent about it. Now if we had more uniformed people of one kind or another on the buses to invigilate and we were systematic in taking away that privilege I think we could get a lot done. What you do is you take it away from - so far four thousand kids are meant to have had this privilege taken away and have not.

Only about three hundred in fact been deprived of it. Now what we could do - and this is just one of a raft of measures that I will be bringing forward later this week to tackle crime. But what we could do is more systematically take it away and work with the police and the bus companies to ...

ANDREW MARR: It doesn't sound ..

BORIS JOHNSON: And then - wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And then make sure that if they want that privilege back - and it is a privilege.

ANDREW MARR: Yeah. Okay. Right, right ..

BORIS JOHNSON: And by the way being given to eighteen year olds and under at the expense of lots of other people who are travelling on the buses and paying good money ..

ANDREW MARR: Get to the end of the sentence.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. good money for it, if they want that privilege back then I think ..

ANDREW MARR: Right.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. that they should earn it ..

ANDREW MARR: Okay.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. back.

ANDREW MARR: Okay.

BORIS JOHNSON: And I'm going to be bringing forward a solution which will be called Payback London or London Payback by which kids who want to get back the privilege of free travel have to do some kind of community service ..

ANDREW MARR: All right.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. or voluntary service, graffiti removal, painting a community centre shed, whatever it happens to be. There are plenty of such schemes already going on around London and I think it will be a good way ..

ANDREW MARR: Okay.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. of - wait, wait, wait - it will be a good way of connecting people with the privilege that they're getting and making them value it.

ANDREW MARR: All right.

BORIS JOHNSON: Because I think ..

ANDREW MARR: You've made that ..

BORIS JOHNSON: Andrew I ..

ANDREW MARR: You've made that point.

BORIS JOHNSON: Well I, and I think it will ..

ANDREW MARR: Several times and then people will have noticed.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. strike, it will strike a big - I hope, I hope ...

ANDREW MARR: Yeah.

BORIS JOHNSON: Cos you've got to make these points several times. And I hope it will strike a big chord with people ..

ANDREW MARR: Right. Okay.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. who feel we're living in a something for nothing society.

ANDREW MARR: Okay.

BORIS JOHNSON: And if ..

ANDREW MARR: Well let ..

BORIS JOHNSON: .. people can earn back a privilege of free travel I think we will have intensified that privilege ..

ANDREW MARR: Right.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. rather than diminished it.

ANDREW MARR: All right. All right.

BORIS JOHNSON: Are you with me?

ANDREW MARR: I, I, well I'm certainly listening to you ..

BORIS JOHNSON: Good.

ANDREW MARR: Put it that way. Let me ask you, let, let ..

BORIS JOHNSON: ... restorative justice of a kind I think you should approve of.

ANDREW MARR: Right let, well let me ask you about another area which is transport. Ken Livingstone said in effect that he wants to see super highways for cyclists, criss-crossing the capital. Something you would support?

BORIS JOHNSON: Well I think the great thing about the proposals I've seen so far from the mayor - we've got to wait and see the detail of this - is that he seems to have come on board with what I've been proposing is which we should go towards a free bike hire scheme of the kind that they have in Paris.

ANDREW MARR: In Paris.

BORIS JOHNSON: You know the Velib Scheme. And the beauty of this scheme is that it entices people who might be nervous of cycling to feel that they can get on this great thinking, clunking bit of French infrastructure and cycle in freedom and safety.

And I do want people to do that. And that's why when I bring forward my Transport Manifesto at the end of this month you will certainly see that as part of, of what we want to do. But you know I get back to this central point and I'm not going to be diverted from message today which is really about crime. People who are wanting to cycle in London are too - and I think you're a cyclist as well ..

ANDREW MARR: I am.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. are too often deterred by the infuriating fact that your bike is ...

ANDREW MARR: It is too dangerous. It's too dangerous.

BORIS JOHNSON: And your bike is stolen. And I want to make sure that when people's, when people suffer minor robberies, minor crimes, that they feel when they report them that something will be done and ..

ANDREW MARR: It's taken seriously.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. it's taken seriously. And that's why ..

ANDREW MARR: Okay.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. one of the things we're going to be bringing forward this week is a new system of crime mapping to make sure that people actually, the police actually respond to the volume of crime in a particular area and are aware of what's going on and that we the public, we in London are actually aware of what's going on in our streets and in our neighbourhoods. A

nd so that the things we suffer and the thefts that we suffer from actually matter and that we can see that the police are going to take notice of them because there it is, in public, and fully ...

ANDREW MARR: I am going to jump in.

BORIS JOHNSON: Let me tell you, let me tell you, let me tell you one more thing.

ANDREW MARR: No I'm going to jump in here ..

BORIS JOHNSON: Let me ..

ANDREW MARR: .. and ask you about, about another - we've got a couple of things to get through.

BORIS JOHNSON: Well ..

ANDREW MARR: In columns, in your writing ..

BORIS JOHNSON: I'd like to ...

ANDREW MARR: .. over a long period of time ..

BORIS JOHNSON: All right, talk about my columns ..

ANDREW MARR: .. you've talked about ..

BORIS JOHNSON: Go on, drag them up.

ANDREW MARR: No, no. Well you've talked about - don't need to drag them up. You've been writing them - your hostility to the Race Relations industry. Does that mean that you would get rid of the Lee Jasper types and all of that part of what the mayor does or not?

BORIS JOHNSON: Well let me - Andrew, what I say about all that is of course I want to bring people together in this fantastic cosmopolitan city and you will see huge energy and effort by me, for instance, to get more black and minority ethnic people into the Metropolitan Police. Our community should be properly policed by people who represent our community.

And that is going to be a priority of mine. I believe passionately in that. But what I don't like and what I don't necessarily want to get dragged into is a sort of situation which you're endlessly balkanising society and endlessly saying well this or that group must be appeased or placated by giving them such and such a benefit and I'm going to do this ...

ANDREW MARR: So you wouldn't have a Lee Jasper?

BORIS JOHNSON: Well I don't think that Lee Jasper is going to be a major part of my administration. I think it's quite extraordinary that the mayor's ..

ANDREW MARR: The job I mean.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. the mayor's current ..

ANDREW MARR: I don't mean the man himself, I mean the job.

BORIS JOHNSON: The mayor's current Police Advisor is actually being investigated by the police. And I think it's stupefying that the police are now going into six separate areas of mayoral activity. And one of the things I want to do in City Hall ..

ANDREW MARR: Is not to be investigated by the police I'm sure

BORIS JOHNSON: .. in City Hall is to clean up this mess.

ANDREW MARR: But what ..

BORIS JOHNSON: And, and ..

ANDREW MARR: .. what about the job itself?

BORIS JOHNSON: .. and quite frankly ..

ANDREW MARR: Sorry, I do return to the job itself.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. we're talking about, on this point about mayoral advisors ..

ANDREW MARR: Yeah.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. to make sure that mayoral advisers are properly accountable. And their interests have got to be properly registered on the website and I think it vital that the London Assembly should be able to interrogate them, as I've said this week, with monthly scrutiny sessions.

ANDREW MARR: Would you have a, would you have a mayoral race advisor?

BORIS JOHNSON: There will be many people from black and ethnic minority communities in my administration.

ANDREW MARR: But will that job exist? I mean it's a straightforward question.

BORIS JOHNSON: There will be people advising on, there will be people advising me on all issues.

ANDREW MARR: It sounds like you don't know.

BORIS JOHNSON: Of course, of course there would be people. No Andrew, of course there will be people advising me on important community issues, and I don't neglect the importance of that. I think it's central to making London ..

ANDREW MARR: Okay.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. work and harmonious.

ANDREW MARR: You've talked about the police. Would you keep Ian Blair?

BORIS JOHNSON: It is not within my prerogatives as you know full well ..

ANDREW MARR: Would you want to keep Ian Blair?

BORIS JOHNSON: .. to remove Ian Blair. We're obviously going to have to have a very serous conversation on May the second about how we're going to take things forward. But as you know it's not possible for me to remove the Commissioner. What I can do - and this is what I will do - is I can take the Chairmanship of the Metropolitan Police Authority. And I will do that.

Because I think it's absolutely vital that the Mayor of London should work as closely as possible with the Commissioner of the Metropolis to stop the ludicrous form filling I've talked about earlier and to work with him to re-prioritise what the police are doing, to get more of them out on the streets, to give people the public the sense of confidence that they want. And that I think requires a real active mayor ..

ANDREW MARR: Okay.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. to take charge of the MPA and not spend any less - if anything I want to spend more - but I want to direct the money so that it can be ..

ANDREW MARR: Right.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. targeted more effectively.

ANDREW MARR: This is turning already everyone can see into quite a dirty campaign. One of the things ..

BORIS JOHNSON: Not, not, not by me.

ANDREW MARR: .. that's been used against, one of the things that's been used against you is some of the things that you've said at the past, the watermelon smiles, the pickaninnies and so on ..

BORIS JOHNSON: Well yeah.

ANDREW MARR: Chance, a chance on the record to deal with that.

BORIS JOHNSON: I think of course I'm sorry for the offence. I've said repeatedly on this subject I am sorry for the offence I've caused. But I do you know insist on my point that these words have been misconstrued and I think most fair-minded observers accept that, or all fair minded observers accept that.

What I think we need to do is move on and try to concentrate on a politics of London that brings people together and tries to take people with you, with us ..

ANDREW MARR: Yes.

BORIS JOHNSON: .. rather than trying to ..

ANDREW MARR: So ..

BORIS JOHNSON: .. play people off against each other ..

ANDREW MARR: So ..

BORIS JOHNSON: .. and trying to create division where there is none.

ANDREW MARR: You ...

BORIS JOHNSON: And trying to see malice where there is none.

ANDREW MARR: You have entertained people in many ways for many years. Are we seeing a new Boris as it were a more ..

BORIS JOHNSON: ...

ANDREW MARR: Because that's what people say: a wonderful chap, very funny, but eleven billion pound budget ..

BORIS JOHNSON: Please don't, don't in any way underestimate my determination to do this job and to deliver a much better deal for Londoners.

ANDREW MARR: Okay. New Britain, new Boris, thank you for the moment very much indeed.

INTERVIEW ENDS

Please note "The Andrew Marr Show" must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

NB: This transcript was typed from a recording and not copied from an original script.

Because of the possibility of mis-hearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, the BBC cannot vouch for its accuracy

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