Transport for London (TfL) has been accused of lying to discredit a group of volunteers who were seen cleaning graffiti from Tube carriages. Andy Lord, the transport body's commissioner, is facing calls to apologise after claiming that individuals were deliberately spraying paint on the London Underground so they could erase it afterwards.
In July, Mr Lord told City Hall that he had 'evidence of people creating graffiti and then removing it', which he suggested was being investigated. However, following a Freedom of Information request, TfL confirmed it did 'not hold any recorded information' to support his statement. Emails reportedly show TfL press officers asking colleagues if they had any evidence of this at all.
Volunteer cleaner Joe Reeve, 28, said in a video: 'They made the whole thing up. They didn't care about the truth. And they certainly didn't care about solving the graffiti. They just wanted to cover up their own incompetence.' Dr Lawrence Newport, who joined Mr Reeve in cleaning graffiti-covered Bakerloo trains, added: 'This is how our political systems react to criticism. They don't make things better. They lie, they smear and they cover it up.'
Keith Prince, a Reform member of the London Assembly, previously called on Mr Lord to 'clarify what he was told'. Mr Reeve and Dr Newport, co-founders of the campaign group Looking for Growth, have launched a petition urging Mr Lord to apologise and join them on their next clean-up.
A TfL spokesman said: 'The commissioner was making reference to information that he had been made aware of verbally and of work being undertaken within TfL as part of our wider graffiti reduction strategy, which aims to prevent and tackle graffiti vandalism.'
