Mr Johnson expressed his exasperation over the government’s failure to curb cab running company Uber’s way of operation in London. He says the government does not do anything about it because it is besotted by US tech firms.
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has hit out at the government for not taking suitable action to curb cab providing company Uber’s actions in the city of London. Earlier this year, Mr Johnson had proposed a cap to be put on the number of cabs that Uber can hire so as to ensure that the city of London is not overcrowded with vehicles and to do justice to the traditional Black Cabs of the city. However, the proposal was dismissed.
Mayor Johnson claims that the government is ineffective in this matter due to its close relations with Uber PR chief Rachel Whetstone, who incidentally, once worked for the Conservative Party. Sources have even said that on the evening when Boris Johnson submitted the proposal for consideration, he received a text message from the Chancellor to drop it.
The Mayor said:
“The Government is still so absolutely besotted with this idea they’ve got to support Californian tech titans, even though they don’t pay a dime of tax in this country, that [ministers] are … not yet doing enough about this.”
Boris Johnson expressed his annoyance over failing to get the government into acting in his favour. He says that the government is absolutely besotted with the idea of supporting California tech giants without bothering to consider that they do not pay any taxes for their operations in the UK. He says that no minister will help him because the government thinks it is absolutely vital to support any and all Californian tech titans.
Sources close to Mr Johnson have gone to state that the Mayor is not at all against the company at all but simply wants to make them mend their ways. Even Mr Johnson concedes that there are two sides of the argument and sources say that he is not looking to make the operation of Uber cars in London difficult.
He only wishes them to address the issues they raise like congesting the roads, illegal parking by the drivers and the increasing pollution due to the large numbers of private cars popping up on the streets. As of now, nearly new 1,000 private cars hit the streets of London every month. Estimates show that if this rate continues, there would be 105,000 private hire cars in London against 21,000 black cabs.
