Mayor of London

Boris Johnson’s record on affordable housing is under scrutiny as the race to decide the next Mayor of London gets underway.

Boris Johnson has promised to “keep police numbers high” in the capital. But FactCheck discovers that officer strength is really at a five-year low.

“So Boris has failed to honour one of his manifesto promises, and he’s missed by more than 700 bobbies, according to these statistics.”

There have been tears, laughter, and the odd stray F-word. The London mayoral race has been high on emotion and more than usually bad-tempered. Boris Johnson has been slightly more careful with his facts, choosing to deal in aspirations rather than promises. Ken Livingstone has made some extravagant claims which have landed him in hot water. Here’s the verdict from FactCheck HQ on a very irritable election.

As the bitter battle for London’s City Hall rumbles on, Ken Livingstone threw in an old claim about affordable housing. But was it a good one? Team Boris didn’t think so. Pinging an email through to FactCheck, Boris’ camp labelled Mr Livingstone’s statement as a “false claim”. They added: “The London Development Database reports that there were actually 2,240 affordable starts over the same six month figures (April and September 2011)”. Who’s right? FactCheck homes in.

How many of UKIP’s manifesto pledges could Lawrence Webb actually force through it he was to become Mayor of London? FactCheck puts a selection to the test.

In 2006, Transport for London promised: “One third of Tube stations will have step-free access by 2013 and will, if possible, accelerate accessibility works ahead of the 2012 Olympics”. How did they get on? FactCheck dons its hard hat.

“The actual cash saving this year is nothing like £445. It’s £3.10, barely enough to buy you a pint of beer in a central London pub.”

Can Ken Livingstone bring back the EMA? FactCheck gets out its red pen.

“We’re happy to provide the figures for excess journey time that include industrial action, since Ken’s team insist. They show that the measure was still significantly better on average under Boris, even though he had more strikes to contend with.”

“The most dramatic difference was in lost passenger hours – a million a month more, on average, under Ken than under Boris.”

Is Ken Livingstone’s proposal to cut London’s transport fares without hitting services plausible? Channel 4 News’ Factcheck investigates.

After the funeral of Mark Duggan today, whose death sparked the riots a month ago, it is understood that police forces from Cornwall to Northumbria will finally leave the capital – ending four weeks of unprecedented extra support for the Metropolitan Police. Will the government pay up, or will the police foot the bill? FactCheck investigates.