Mayor: PPP will cause mass deaths

Ken Livingstone has delivered a dire warning of mass deaths on the Underground if the Government goes ahead with its plan to part-privatise the system.

In an extraordinary outburst, the Mayor predicted that the tragedy of the Hatfield crash, in which four died and more than 30 were injured, would be magnified tenfold if Transport Secretary Stephen Byers repeats on the Tube the Tory breakup of the railways.

Mr Livingstone said: "What killed the people at Hatfield was breaking up the system so that lawyers and accountants decided what should be done, not people who have spent a lifetime running the railways. They will be arguing about the contracts as they haul the bodies out of the Underground. The horror of what happened at Hatfield could be magnified 10 times on the Underground."

Mr Livingstone's warning dramatically upped the stakes at the start of a week in which Mr Byers is expected to give the go-ahead for the controversial break-up. For the Mayor coupled his warning with a threat that, if the worst happens, the Labour Government will carry the entire blame. In doing so, he delivered Mr Byers the Black Spot. If the predicted disaster were now to happen, there is no way the Transport Secretary could keep his job and the entire Blair Government would be seriously damaged.

Mr Byers is expected on Thursday to declare his approval "in principle" to the public-private partnership plan (PPP), which will see private companies awarded contracts to run substantial parts of the network.

Mr Livingstone's warning of the consequences, delivered at a fringe meeting at Labour's spring conference at the weekend, drew gasps and a mixed response from his predominantly Left-wing audience.

While most applauded, some shouted in disapproval and one voice called out: "He's lost it!"

The Mayor, nonetheless, said that Mr Byers was creating "a ticking timebomb that will erupt". And he continued: "There will be nobody else to blame when we see the toll of horror, misery and loss of life. People have died because John Major's government privatised British Rail. All I would say to Stephen Byers is, why are you going to do to the Underground what John Major did to rail?"

Tony Blair, in his speech to the conference in Cardiff, reaffirmed that charges that the Government was bent on privatising large parts of the public sector were false. Ministers insist that PPP does not amount to privatisation of the Tube and claim it will save at least £1 billion in the cost of raising investment to modernise the system.

The plan, however, continues to be bitterly opposed by the unions and almost all independent experts.

The go-ahead will follow a report from accountants Ernst & Young to back the Government's assertion that the deal with private companies, under an umbrella of public control, is the best way to proceed.

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