The Mayor of London spent £17,000 to hold an anti-Third Runway rally, a cost that included £1,000 just for taxis.

The information was unearthed by blogger Will Parbury through a Freedom of Information Request which is detailed here.

The £1000 spent on taxis alone will be particularly hypocritical given that the Mayor himself had said he would try and keep his transportation costs down.

The Hillingdon event was originally criticised for being a “Tory propaganda” event.

Image by Beau Bo D’or

The Guardian reported at the time:

Opposition parties on the London assembly were furious that Johnson chose to break with the mayor’s “people’s question time” tradition by failing to invite them on to the stage, even though the cross-party assembly is opposed to expansion – including the eight-strong Labour group.

The panel of speakers arguing against the plans was made up exclusively of Conservatives: Johnson, Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Richmond Park, and Ray Puddifoot, the Conservative council leader of Hillingdon council and a representative of the 2M coalition of councils opposed to expansion.

The eventual cost of the event could be as high as £20,000, all paid by London’s taxpayers.

Andrew Gilligan was not found to be outraged over the cost of the event. The Taxpayers’ Alliance have not yet said anything on the issue either.
[hat tip: Dave Hill]

1. Liberal Conspiracy
   

   New blog post: Mayor spends £17k on ‘propaganda’ http://tinyurl.com/b86yvr

   [Original tweet]