Boris Johnson's taxi bill is eight times more than Ken's

BORIS Johnson is spending eight times more on taxis than Ken Livingstone did.

New figures show that the Mayor claimed £1,501 in cab fares in November, December and January as he visited the outer London boroughs where he is most popular.

That works out at an average £16.31 a day, although this would barely take him from City Hall to Westminster.

Mr Livingstone, in his final year in office, spent £729 - an average of £2 a day. It means Mr Johnson is racking up over eight times more in fares than his predecessor.

There has been criticism over a £1,000 transport bill for Mr Johnson's entourage after People's Question Time in Hillingdon on 21 January.

A spokeswoman for Mr Johnson said: "The Mayor cycles every day - to and from work and to almost every one of his meetings.

"Many of those, however, are in remote parts of outer London - areas which often feel neglected by the previous mayoralty and which he is determined to visit on a regular basis.

"Many of those areas are too far to cycle to. Though the Mayor invariably uses public transport when he cannot take his bike, there are times, regretfully, when his tight schedule makes it necessary to use a taxi. When he does so he uses the same taxi firm on every occasion - a company granted the sole contract for City Hall by the former mayor."

Mr Johnson's total expenses claim for November to January came to £4,065. His office said this was in part due to flights to Davos for the World Economic Forum and to car hire in Beijing.

Under new guidelines drawn up by City Hall, staff must get a taxi only when it is "absolutely necessary".

They must travel standard class on trains, while flights must be in economy and economy plus. Previously staff had been able to travel in business class if the journey was more than six hours.