The actor Laurence Fox is promising six months of free tube and bus travel in London if he gets elected mayor in next month’s election.

The Reclaim Party leader says it’ll help “bring the capital back to life” after lockdown.

Fox told the Evening Standard, “Our Chancellor Rishi Sunak is paying people to stay at home through his furlough scheme. “I want to pay people to get out of the house and go to work or to the shops, the pub or the cinema.”

Although it would cost Transport for London at least £500 million in lost fares, he says the boost to the dormant London economy would more than recoup the costs, while also speeding up the return of passenger numbers to pre-lockdown levels and making the city “happier”.

The Standard quotes him as saying, “Londoners need to be free to get back to work, back to having fun, back to seeing our friends and families,” and that free travel is a way of jolting people back to offices, shops, pubs and restaurants, boosting social and economic activity.

(Picture – Reclaim party)