Sadiq Khan’s calamitous handling of the Crossrail launch is going from bad to worse as it emerges that Crossrail could require over £2 billion in bailout funds. Under a financial package confirmed today between Khan and the Treasury, Transport for London is set for another an emergency cash injection with the GLA borrowing up to £1.3 billion from the Department for Transport as well as providing £100 million of its own funds. There is a contingency option for a further bailout of up to £750 million, also loaned from DfT. This is on top of the £300 million initial bailout which was already granted to TfL in July…

Sadiq’s financial mismanagement has left Londoners on the hook – under the terms of the £1.3 billion loan it will have to be repaid directly by London’s businesses through Sadiq’s Business Rate Supplement (BRS) and Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy (MCIL) taxes. TfL’s finances are in a dire state thanks to his partial fares freeze, as well as the delays to Crossrail and lost advertising revenues under his ban-happy advertising policy. TfL is now facing a huge £1 billion operating deficit which is why it is having to go cap-in-hand to the Government for bailouts…

Sadiq is still facing an FCA investigation into his failure to inform the London Stock Exchange that Crossrail’s launch would be delayed until Autumn 2019, with outgoing Crossrail chairman Sir Terry Morgan accusing Sadiq of knowing about the delay as early as late July. City Hall insiders reckon that the launch may yet be pushed back as far as Autumn 2020, after the next London Mayoral Election. How much more of London taxpayers’ cash will Sadiq have squandered by then?

UPDATE: A frustrated government source comments: “We’ve had to dig deep to save the Crossrail project thanks to the mismanagement of money under a Labour mayor (and a moderate one by Corbyn’s standards…)”