"Suicide" for parties not to commit to cycling funding, says Boris Johnson

Amid increasing calls for more spending on cycling facilities, Mayor of London Boris Johnson says it would be "suicide" for any political party not to commit funding in its election manifesto.

Speaking to Kaya Burgess of The Times at yesterday's announcement of the final plans for London's East-West cycle superhighway, Johnson said political parties should "absolutely" pledge significant funding for cycling for the rest of the country.

He said: "I’m sure it will be in the Conservative manifesto. Other parties can commit suicide by failing to promote cycling if they want.

“We need a cycling revolution across the country as a whole and I think we should be looking at a much more thorough system of links across Britain.”

On Twitter, Chris Boardman said Johnson was "bold"

1/2 Hell if a quote from mayor of London in The Times, don't get many politicians as bold as this...

— Chris Boardman (@Chris_Boardman) January 28, 2015

It's certainly a change from the political squabble earlier this month in which Conservative and Labour parties appeared to be competing to see who could spend least on cycling.

The Conservatives accused Labour of planning to resurrect Cycling England and the Cycling Towns and Cities initiatives, at an alleged cost of £63 million.

"This is just nonsense," said shadow chancellor Ed Balls, denying that Labour's National Policy Forum Report commitment to "promote cycling by making it safer and more accessible” amounted to a £63 million spending commitment.

Roger Geffen, CTC's campaigns and policy director, said: “This fierce competition between Conservative and Labour party leadership over how not to spend money on cycling is massively disappointing. It is about time that the two main parties reflected [recognition of the benefits of cycling] through meaningful long term funding of at least £10 per head per year."

Against that background, the last couple of weeks have seen a remarkable turn-around in Conservative policy. As Parliamentary candidate for the safe Conservative seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Johnson has been tipped as the next party leader.

Yesterday, the Government approved the addition to its Infrastructure Bill of an amendment mandating the Department for Transport to plan for cycling and walking. Once the Bill passes into law, that amendment would also oblige the DfT to allocate a budget to be spent on cycling.