Facts

Boris Johnson was talking about his own time as Mayor of London, claiming that he left TfL’s “coffers full”. 

TfL’s own funding statement says: “Sadiq Khan inherited a £1.5 billion budget deficit from Boris Johnson when he became Mayor.”

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London challenged Johnson on this, saying: “It is simply not true that the previous Mayor ‘left the coffers full’ at TfL.

“The overwhelming majority of TfL’s borrowing was incurred under the previous mayoralty, throughout which TfL accumulated £7billion of debt – vastly more than in all other years of TfL’s existence combined - so most of the interest that TfL is currently paying results from borrowing when the current prime minister was Mayor of London.”

Verdict

Johnson’s slur on Sadiq Khan, uttered during a press briefing on the Coronavirus emergency, was false.  

We approached Mr Johnson’s office, the Cabinet Office and the No 10 Press Office to give them a chance to comment, but no reply.