• Figures obtained by Murad Qureshi AM suggest where 588 frontline staff are set to be cut from across London Underground stations, with some stations losing up to 58% of staff.
• More than 42% of visible staff set to be axed from Ladbroke Grove station in Kensington & Chelsea.     

Analysis of TfL staffing plans by Labour London wide Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM, has shown that under current proposals staffing levels across London Underground stations are set to be cut by an average of almost 16% from January.

In Kensington & Chelsea, the following stations will see major staff cuts:

• Ladbroke Grove – 42% (or 6.2 full time equivalent staff)
• Notting Hill Gate – 20% (or 5 full time equivalent staff)
• High Street Kensington – 19% (or 3 full time equivalent staff)
• West Brompton – 18% (or 1.7 full time equivalent staff)
• Knightsbridge – 15% (or 3.4 full time equivalent staff)
• Earls Court – 14% (or 6 full time equivalent staff)
• Sloane Square – 12% (or 2 full time equivalent staff)
• Gloucester Road – 12% (or 3.4 full time equivalent staff)

The projected changes show that 216 stations will have their staffing numbers cut, with around 588 staff due to be shed in total across the network.

The staff cuts will come as part of the planned closure of all the capital’s tube station ticket offices, despite the Mayor previously pledging to protect all ticket offices from cuts. The staff cuts vary across the tube station network with some stations losing over half their staff.

Murad Qureshi AM, said:

“It beggars belief that, with tube fares due to rise by 2.5% in January, Boris Johnson has the nerve to cut front line staffing levels at stations by an average of 16% across London. In Kensington & Chelsea we will lose 42% of staff from Ladbroke Grove for example, leaving passengers being forced to pay more money for less staff support.

“Politicians are often in the business of demanding more for less. It seems in this case Boris Johnson is happy with tube passengers getting less for more.

“The issue isn’t necessarily whether staff are based in ticket offices or on the station concourse, but whether staffing levels can provide all customers – especially the disabled and elderly – with a good service. I am calling on TfL to address this issue and to await the outcome of TravelWatch’s consultation survey before finalising plans. It is deplorable that TfL is not carrying out its own station by station consultation, so it is even more important that they take TravelWatch’s findings into account.”

ENDS

• Murad Qureshi AM is a Labour London wide Assembly Member.
• Proposed staffing changes to all stations across the Underground network can be viewed online here, and a ranked version of the full data, sorted by level of cuts, can be found here.
• Stations suffering the highest levels of cuts include:

o   Barons Court – reduction of 58% (or 6.5 full time equivalent staff)

o   Edgware – 58% (6.9 staff)

o   Finchley Central – 57% (5.8)

o   Kilburn – 56% (6.2)

o   Dagenham Heathway – 56% (5.6)

o   Parsons Green – 56% (5.7)

o   Plaistow – 55% (6.4)

o   Stanmore – 55% (6.4)

o   East Ham – 54% (7.4)

o   Southfields – 53% (5.1)

o   Golders Green – 53% (6.9)

o   Upton Park – 51% (5.4)

o   Hammersmith – 50% (5.4)

• In 2008, Boris Johnson ran for Mayor on a promise to oppose all ticket office closures, even signing a petition ‘Nick Clegg tuition fee style’ in front of the cameras.
• London TravelWatch’s consultation on London Underground ticket office closures can be accessed here.

• Figures obtained by Murad Qureshi AM suggest where 588 frontline staff are set to be cut from across London Underground stations, with some stations losing up to 58% of staff.
• More than 58% of visible staff set to be axed from Barons Court station in Hammersmith & Fulham.     

Analysis of TfL staffing plans by Labour London wide Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM, has shown that under current proposals staffing levels across London Underground stations are set to be cut by an average of almost 16% from January.

In Hammersmith & Fulham the following stations will see major staff cuts:

• Barons Court – 58% (or 6.5 full time equivalent staff)
• Parsons Green – 55% (or 5.7 full time equivalent staff)
• Hammersmith (H&C) – 50% (or 6 full time equivalent staff)
• Wood Lane – 37% (or 2.6 full time equivalent staff)
• Putney Bridge – 36% (or 3.1 full time equivalent staff)
• Fulham Broadway – 32% (or 5.8 full time equivalent staff)
• East Acton – 27% (or 1.7 full time equivalent staff)
• West Kensington – 25% (or 1.9 full time equivalent staff)
• Shepherds Bush – 21% (or 5 full time equivalent staff)
• Hammersmith (D&P) – 20% (or 7 full time equivalent staff)
• Shepherds Bush – 15% (or 0.8 full time equivalent staff)
• White City – 15% (or 1.5 full time equivalent staff)

The projected changes show that 216 stations will have their staffing numbers cut, with around 588 staff due to be shed in total across the network.

The staff cuts will come as part of the planned closure of all the capital’s tube station ticket offices, despite the Mayor previously pledging to protect all ticket offices from cuts. The staff cuts vary across the tube station network with some stations losing over half their staff.

Murad Qureshi AM, said:

“It beggars belief that, with tube fares due to rise by 2.5% in January, Boris Johnson has the nerve to cut front line staffing levels at stations by an average of 16% across London. In Hammersmith & Fulham we will lose 58% of staff from Barons Court for example, leaving passengers being forced to pay more money for less staff support.

“Politicians are often in the business of demanding more for less. It seems in this case Boris Johnson is happy with tube passengers getting less for more.

“The issue isn’t necessarily whether staff are based in ticket offices or on the station concourse, but whether staffing levels can provide all customers – especially the disabled and elderly – with a good service. I am calling on TfL to address this issue and to await the outcome of TravelWatch’s consultation survey before finalising plans. It is deplorable that TfL is not carrying out its own station by station consultation, so it is even more important that they take TravelWatch’s findings into account.”

ENDS

• Murad Qureshi AM is a Labour London wide Assembly Member.
• Proposed staffing changes to all stations across the Underground network can be viewed online here, and a ranked version of the full data, sorted by level of cuts, can be found here.
• Stations suffering the highest levels of cuts include:

o   Barons Court – reduction of 58% (or 6.5 full time equivalent staff)

o   Edgware – 58% (6.9 staff)

o   Finchley Central – 57% (5.8)

o   Kilburn – 56% (6.2)

o   Dagenham Heathway – 56% (5.6)

o   Parsons Green – 56% (5.7)

o   Plaistow – 55% (6.4)

o   Stanmore – 55% (6.4)

o   East Ham – 54% (7.4)

o   Southfields – 53% (5.1)

o   Golders Green – 53% (6.9)

o   Upton Park – 51% (5.4)

o   Hammersmith – 50% (5.4)

• In 2008, Boris Johnson ran for Mayor on a promise to oppose all ticket office closures, even signing a petition ‘Nick Clegg tuition fee style’ in front of the cameras.
• London TravelWatch’s consultation on London Underground ticket office closures can be accessed here.

•  Figures obtained by Murad Qureshi AM suggest where 588 frontline staff are set to be cut from across London Underground stations, with some stations losing up to 58% of staff.
• More than 46% of visible staff are set to be axed from Edgware Road (Bakerloo) station in Westminster.

Analysis of TfL staffing plans by Labour London wide Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM, has shown that under current proposals staffing levels across London Underground stations are set to be cut by an average of almost 16% from January.

In Westminster, the following stations will see major staff cuts with a further 10 stations in Westminster facing proposed staff cuts of more than 10% (see notes for list)

• Edgware Road (Bakerloo) – 46% (or 7.1 full time equivalent staff)
• Edgware Road (Hammersmith & City) – 43% (or 8 full time equivalent staff)
• Great Portland Street – 31% (or 4.3 full time equivalent staff)
• Queens Park – 25% (or 4 full time equivalent staff)
• St James’s Park – 20% (or 2.8 full time equivalent staff)
• Pimlico – 16% (or 1.8 full time equivalent staff)
• Charing Cross – 15% (or 4.4full time equivalent staff)

The projected changes show that 216 stations will have their staffing numbers cut, with around 588 staff due to be shed in total across the network.

The staff cuts will come as part of the planned closure of all the capital’s tube station ticket offices, despite the Mayor previously pledging to protect all ticket offices from cuts. The staff cuts vary across the tube station network with some stations losing over half their staff.

Murad Qureshi AM, said:

“It beggars belief that, with tube fares due to rise by 2.5% in January; Boris Johnson has the nerve to cut front line staffing levels at stations by an average of 16% across London. In Westminster we will lose 46% of staff from Edgware Road (Bakerloo) for example, leaving passengers being forced to pay more money for less staff support.

“Politicians are often in the business of demanding more for less. It seems in this case Boris Johnson is happy with tube passengers getting less for more.

“The issue isn’t necessarily whether staff are based in ticket offices or on the station concourse, but whether staffing levels can provide all customers – especially the disabled and elderly – with a good service. I am calling on TfL to address this issue and to await the outcome of TravelWatch’s consultation survey before finalising plans. It is deplorable that TfL is not carrying out its own station by station consultation, so it is even more important that they take TravelWatch’s findings into account.”

ENDS

• Murad Qureshi AM is a Labour London wide Assembly Member.
• Proposed staffing changes to all stations across the Underground network can be viewed online here, and a ranked version of the full data, sorted by level of cuts, can be found here.
• Stations suffering the highest levels of cuts include:

o   Barons Court – reduction of 58% (or 6.5 full time equivalent staff)

o   Edgware – 58% (6.9 staff)

o   Finchley Central – 57% (5.8)

o   Kilburn – 56% (6.2)

o   Dagenham Heathway – 56% (5.6)

o   Parsons Green – 56% (5.7)

o   Plaistow – 55% (6.4)

o   Stanmore – 55% (6.4)

o   East Ham – 54% (7.4)

o   Southfields – 53% (5.1)

o   Golders Green – 53% (6.9)

o   Upton Park – 51% (5.4)

o   Hammersmith – 50% (5.4)

• Other stations in Westminster with proposed staff cuts of more than 10% are: Paddington/Leicester Square/Lancaster Gate/Hyde Park Corner/Victoria/Baker Street/Oxford Circus/St John’s Wood/Embankment and Queensway
• In 2008, Boris Johnson ran for Mayor on a promise to oppose all ticket office closures, even signing a petition‘Nick Clegg tuition fee style’ in front of the cameras.
• London TravelWatch’s consultation on London Underground ticket office closures can be accessed here.

Today at Mayors Question Time (MQT), l was able to raise my concerns about sectarian tensions in London between Sunni & Shia with the Mayor directly on the back of my colleagues Joanne McCartney question on whether the government is doing enough to protect Londoners from potential terrorism arising from the conflict in Syria & Iraq?

Last year in May, l raised my concerns with the Met about an incident along the Edgware Rd involving Anjem Choudhary & his mob. It was dealt with as a public order offence when it was clearly more then that as it involved the incitement of religious hatred against Shia’s. Please see my previous blog at the time on the matter. I have also heard from Regents Park mosque concerns about anti-Sunni preaching from Shiekh Al-Habib. I wanted to be reassured that the counter-terrorism strategy dealt with such Muslim sectarianism given the Mayor at least knew the history of the battle of the camel and usefully input into the debate. Please see above video clip to see the response.

Such an emphasis would also be useful for the Prevent programme, as the reality is that going to Jihad for Isil would mean getting involved in such sectarian battles. As Professor Neumann from King’s College London point’s out, far from defending people against oppressors, foreign fighters are likely to be fighting or oppressing other Muslims – men, women and children too!

I hope that’s a useful contribution to the focus of the counter-terrorism efforts.

London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi today (Wednesday) challenged Mayor of London Boris Johnson on why he gave TNT Post’s expansion in the capital publicity, despite the company’s record on poverty pay.

TNT Post aims to expand its workforce to 20,000 postal workers by 2017 and the company is currently operating in south west, central and north west London as well as other cities around the country.

Boris also pledged to look at the London Assembly’s motion, passed in July, calling on the Mayor to support the Communication Workers Union (CWU) campaign to protect the universal postal service and lobby the government and Ofcom to bring Royal Mail back into public ownership.

Murad Qureshi, Londonwide Labour Assembly Member, said: “I’m pleased the Mayor has recognised his double standards today and has made representations to TNT Post to become an accredited Living Wage employer.

“TNT’s use of zero-hours contracts and paying staff below the national minimum wage is appalling and I welcome his promise to challenge this.”

Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, said:

“We have fought hard to ensure that the terms and conditions of hard-working Royal Mail postal workers are fair and decent but competitors in the industry seem to want a race to the bottom over employment standards.

“Aside from Royal Mail, postal delivery companies are operating free of regulation from Ofcom. London is already feeling the effects of unregulated competition to Royal Mail and the Mayor must join us in lobbying the government and Ofcom to undertake urgent regulatory intervention and deliver a level playing field.”

Notes:

Watch Murad Qureshi AM questioning the Mayor of London at Mayor’s Question Time today here:

The Communication Workers Union represents over 200,000 people working across the postal and telecommunication industries.

Published: 12 September, 2014
by WILLIAM McLENNAN

THOUSANDS of patients are to lose their doctor when a GP surgery in Paddington closes at the end of this month.

Staff at Milne House Medical Centre have been told by the NHS that they will be shutting their doors on September 30, but patients are yet to be told.

NHS chiefs decided to axe the surgery, which has around 3,000 patients, after a bodged consultation process, that was extended after many patients did not receive letters warning them the surgery was facing closure.

Patient Danna Cohen said the whole process had been characterised by a “lack of commun­ication,” adding: “I had a plan B, but a lot patients don’t even know how to have a plan B. There’s a lot of elderly patients and people who don’t speak English as a first language. I’m thinking of other patients and there might be a lot of patients who can’t handle this at all.”

The surgery has been under threat for months after Central London Community Healthcare trust (CLCH) decided running the surgery no longer fit their “business plan”.

NHS England were left with the decision of continuing to fund the surgery or “dispersing” the patients between neighbouring doctors.

Labour Assembly Member Murad Qureshi, who has been campaigning alongside patients, said: “The most basic thing you can do is inform people.

“The least they could do is inform people they are closing it and these are the places you can now go. Not doing so appears to treat the patients very callously and in a haphazard way. Many of these patients will be elderly and have been living in the area for a very long time.”

The news comes after the closure of nearby W2 Health, which shut because the sole doctor retired, and has led to concerns about a shortage of GPs in the area.

Mr Qureshi said: “I think the coverage is going to be the problem, whether there are enough surgeries locally for people to walk into.”

A spokeswoman for NHS England admitted there had been a delay in sending the letters, but said they would be sent immediately and received this weekend, giving them just two weeks to find a new surgery.

Soho Square General Practice, that was also under threat, is to remain open following a strongly-fought campaign by patients.

View the article here:

–       Forces in Hounslow face a 10% vacancy rate;

–       Vacancies leave Hounslow without 10 sergeants;

–       High vacancy rates leave ‘a gaping hole at the heart of the Met’;

–       Figures show a £13.7m Met underspend on police officer pay, suggesting that that vacancies have been sitting open as part of a cost saving exercise.

New figures obtained by Labour London Assembly Member Joanne McCartney show that in May this year (the latest period available) there were 1,209 vacancies for police sergeants and constables across the capital’s borough forces.

The high vacancy rates come on top of significant cuts in police numbers since the Government came to power, with official figures showing 8 police officers and PCSOs cut from Hounslow’s streets between May 2010 and May 2014, and 4,694 from London’s streets overall. A report last year also found that the Met’s proportion of officers deemed ‘visible’ was the third lowest in England and Wales.

Hounslow is one of 14 London boroughs with vacancy rates of over 6%, with five facing double digit deficits. Harrow is shown to have the highest percentage of vacancies, with 15% of its sergeant and constable posts unfilled. Waltham Forest had the highest overall number, with 72 vacancies from a force of 664.

The figures were revealed after HMIC warned that “forces across England and Wales plan to achieve most of their savings by reducing the number of police officers, PCSOs and police staff… most of the savings [of the MPS] come from reducing the size of the workforce.”

Labour London wide Assembly Member, Murad Qureshi AM, said:

“In his manifesto Boris Johnson pledged to put more officers on the beat. In reality what we have seen is 8 police officers and PCSOs cut from Hounslow’s streets since this Government came to power. Now we learn that on top of that, 10%, of Hounslow’s police officers are missing due to unfilled an vacancy, that’s 55 extra officers who should be on our streets. It is an absolute scandal that police numbers have been allowed to fall this low, these vacancies are leaving a gaping hole at the heart of the local police force.

“Whilst a small churn in the number of officers is to be expected, these are deeply concerning figures. With 10% police officer positions unfilled we need to ask not only what impact that has on policing, but why the Mayor of London Boris Johnson has allowed it to happen in the first place. Either the depth of officer morale is so low they are haemorrhaging officers, or these posts are being kept open to keep costs down. Either way the Mayor should take immediate action to ensure our police force is up to strength and vacancies are filled as quickly as possible.”

ENDS

Notes

• Murad Qureshi AM is a Labour London wide Assembly Member.
• Police vacancy figures across London boroughs (as of 31 May 2014) were supplied in response to a question to the Mayor from Joanne McCartney AM. The combination of borough vacancies and neighbourhood policing team vacancies totalled 1,209.
• A breakdown of police vacancies by borough is available here.
• Actual police officer strength across London boroughs (as of May 2014) were published on London Datastore (figures are accessible via the raw data link, and then by clicking on Police Officers and Staff Numbers, by Borough/Business Unit).
• The MPS has the third lowest proportion of officers that are deemed ‘visible’ in England and Wales 2013-14, at 52%. (Value for Money Profiles, HMIC, November 2013, p 43).
• HMIC warned that “… most of the savings [of the MPS] come from reducing the size of the workforce.” In its report Responding to Austerity – Metropolitan Police Service (p 16).
• The June 2014 MOPAC monitoring report stated that there was a £13.7m underspend on police officer pay in 2013/14 (MOPAC Monthly Report to the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee – June 2014, Appendix One, p 6).

Theresa May famously claimed her own Tory Party was the nasty party when she was Party chairperson and she has clearly shown that tendency with herself over the Talha Ahsan extradition.

When she had the discretion as Secretary of State for the Home Affairs, she put Talha Ahsan in with Abu Hamza when she extradited them to the US and boasted this to the Party faithful in their 2012 Party Conference. Furthermore, she decided not to extradite Gary McKinnon another person who the US wanted extradited but she rejected it on health grounds as he has Aspergers syndrome. Talha Ahsan has a similar condition yet she felt not able to wave the extradition request from the US on the same grounds. You can only guess what made her do that!

So shame on Theresa May for being so nasty.

Thats why l was happy to speak against her in front of the Home Office last weekend and welcome back the swift return of Talha to London. He was cleared by a US judge more than a month ago now and should have been back to spend Eid with his family, yet incredible the authorities in the US still detain him.

Welcome back to London Talha soon.

Is the Mayor sticking two fingers up to Londoners, as he goes part-time?

Last week Boris Johnson finally confirmed politics’ worst kept secret, admitting he intends to stand at the General Election next May.

Despite previously describing being Mayor of London as the “greatest job in the world” Boris has had a change of heart, admitting over the weekend he simply became Mayor to “show what he could do” and “gain some administrative experience”.

With his sights now set on Downing St, Londoners could be forgiven for feeling distinctly short-changed by the part time Mayor’s decision.

It’s not only a snub to the Londoners who elected him but a question of honesty after promising to serve his full term and insisting that the job of mayor “cannot be combined with any other political capacity”.

Whilst Boris’ interests move on, it is Londoners who will pay the price. For the next two years their Mayor will be utterly distracted – first fighting an election campaign, then as an MP if he’s successful. All this at a time when Londoners – who are suffering a severe housing crisis, cuts to police and fire services, and some of the worst air quality in Europe –need and deserve strong leadership.

Boris’ admission that he saw the Mayoralty as nothing more than a stepping stone, to help build his public profile, is reflected by his record at City Hall. He has overseen 4,500 less police officers on our streets, closed 10 fire stations – jeopardising the safety of Londoners, has been responsible for a 43.7 per cent increase in bus fares and a 33.2 per cent increase in Tube fares; and presided over a severe housing crisis in the capital. Londoners deserve better than a part-time Mayor who is more concerned with his own political ambitions than leading their city.

 In the event of getting elected back into the Commons in May 2015, we have two scenarios. If the Conservatives become the opposition, this will almost immediately trigger a leadership contest which undoubted Boris Johnson would throw his hat into the ring and become his dominant focus and concern when he is meant to be seeing out his final year as Mayor.

Alternatively, were the Conservatives get re-elected, Boris would no doubt seeks a seat in Cabinet again taking him away from what should be his day job.

Neither scenario serves the best interests of Londoners who will ultimately be the ones who suffer. Whilst Boris pursues his political ambitions, London will be left effectively mayorless. Sadly it now seems that is a sacrifice Boris Johnson is willing to make.

 This has been published in this week’s edition of  the West End Extra.

myself speaking at the last major demo in London during the Gaza assault

As a child l can well remember being bombed by Pakistan Air Force during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. The bombardment of the Gaza strip by Israel, reminded me of those events in my life after over 40 years but at least l was able to flee across the border to India with my family. Sadly the Palestinians do not have this option as the Egyptian army have kept the Rafah crossing firmly closed whilst the Israel’s have complete control by air, sea and land access into the Gaza strip, effectively making it an open prison. (I trust the Egyptian people will hold their leaders to account someday on this betrayal). So it is easy to relate to what’s being happening as a Bengali to events in Gaza strip over the pounding it has received over the past month, with more than 1800 civilian killed and thousands injured including many children over the month of Ramadan.

In Rafah this last weekend, we saw one of the worst acceleration of the killings based on half truths peddled by the Israel government media service. We were told that one of their soldiers had been taken captive by Hamas and they will take all measures possible to retrieve him including the wide spread destruction of Rafah. After two days of bombing in Rafah killing over 150 Palestinians the Israel Defence Force (IDF) than admitted that he was probably killed in action, which is what Hamas have said all along. The additional killings in Rafah included bombing UN school sites, one of the last refuges for many Palestinians, even after the UN had informed that there was nothing untoward at the schools. So it was not surprising to hear of the Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, moral outrage at the attacks, calling them “murderous acts and an war crime” But the reality from the outset of this military action by Israel, was that an attack on Gaza was really about breaking up the unity between the Palestinians and their two political entities amongst them, Fatah & Hamas across both the West Bank and Gaza strip which l saw first hand in a trip to the West Bank a month before the appalling action by Israel. The brutal killing of the three Israel’s in Hebron under suspicious circumstances was just the pretext for the launch for the assault.

More recently a British aid worker called Kadir Islam from Rochdale representing Muslim Aid was killed in Rafah giving aid of medical supplies to a hospital when he was struck down by missile. I too have been to Rafah with medical supplies and ambulances, going over land via Egypt after the last war in Gaza. I can well understand his motives but he done it under fire during the war when my party and myself were more cautious.

As a citizen of the UK, l also have to acknowledge how complicit the British state has been from the outset of the plight of the Palestinian. During the original British mandate in the 1940’s, it was governing the lands when the “nakba” occurred with land being stolen from Palestinians and they ethnic cleansing from their own lands. More recently l have seen first hand how British colonial laws like administrative detention are being used in the West Bank to detain political prisons and young boys and the shameful supplying of military arms and equipment to the IDF. Such arm sales must stop immediately, as the British public are shell shocked to see daily images of the death and destruction in the Gaza on TV for the past month. Once they realise we are supplying them to the tune of £ 8 billion worth of sales, the coalition government will have to bee seen to be doing something about it. The historical responsibility has to be taken on board and maybe we can start doing that by accepting Palestine as a member of the Commonwealth, given it was a part of the British empire. Whilst this will not change things on the ground, it would be diplomatic victory similar to recognition by the UN. It should aid and assist the Palestinian pursuit of war crimes through the International Criminal Courts (ICC).

I remember well my first political slogan that l learnt from the laps of my grandparents, Joy Bangla. We were very fortunate to at least see the land of Bengalis; Bangladesh actually emerged from a 9 month battle. I hope in my life time to hear Joy Palestine as well but it will a lot harder task in hand and has ready been running for over 70 years. I know many Bangladesh’s will be working towards that goal. So Joy Bangla, Joy Palestine.

The blog piece has been published in Dhaka Tribune & Weekly Desh