Andrew Gilligan now turns his attention to how taxpayers' money is being spent by the Johnson regime at City Hall

It was Andrew Gilligan's drip-drip of damaging allegations in the Evening Standard about how Ken Livingstone spent public money on a variety of dubious projects and causes which did so much to undermine him towards the end of his tenure as London Mayor.

Well, as if to help prove that he was no place-man supporting Boris Johson's bid for the mayoralty, Gilligan would seem to be paying equal attention to how the new administration at City Hall is spending our money.

He has today published an article suggesting that a Muslim group run by an "extremist" has benefited from public funds to the tune of £30,000 since Boris was elected Mayor.

He writes:

"Mayor Boris Johnson has given at least £30,000 of taxpayers' money to an organisation co-controlled by an Islamist "extremist", the Standard can reveal. Azad Ali praises a spiritual leader of al Qaeda  on his blog, denies the Mumbai attacks were "terrorism" and quotes, apparently approvingly, a statement advocating the killing of British troops in Iraq.

"He also criticises those Muslims who "tell people that Islam is a religion of peace". He describes non-Muslims as "sinners" and says Muslims should "hate [non-Muslims'] disbelieving actions". Mr Ali is the founding chairman, and current treasurer, of the Muslim Safety Forum, a group that has received at least £30,000 from City Hall since Mr Johnson's election last May."

A spokesman for the Mayor responded by laying the blame for the grant on the previous regime:

"The Mayor is very concerned to discover that taxpayers' money has gone to this organisation.The commitment was made by the previous Mayor and the agreement was in place before the election. The Mayor has ensured that no further payments will be made when the outstanding agreement is concluded."

It is reassuring to know that this does not appear to be something for which Boris can be held responsible, but it should serve as a reminder to him - and all those with the power to distribute public funds - that they are being scrutinised and that taxpayers expect the money they have been forced to part with to be used both wisely and responsibly.

Jonathan Isaby

Comments

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

Boris has broken several promises, sadly, on conservation. Ward's Corner here in Haringey and one in Ealing. All very depressing.

[Jack Stone]

Boris always gives the impression that he doesn`t really know what`s going on around him now we know that really is the case.

[David Galea]

Boris has been a successful mayor despite the constant attempts by pseudo conservatives and Guardian types to trip him up.

I've seen a few lame attack blogs online. They're good for a chuckle.

[Susan]

Check the commitments - Boris only honoured commitment made by the previous Mayor.

[Iain]

"Check the commitments - Boris only honoured commitment made by the previous Mayor."

That's a cop out he's not obligated to honour Livingstone's commitments, otherwise if that was the case it would make elections pretty pointless!

[Susan]

Well said, Ian. So why is Boris doing this?

[Jack Stone]

The only things that Boris as been notable for since he become Mayor is that he loses advisors like some people lose there car keys and he couldn`t even keep the buses running when it snowed. The man is useless!!

[YMT]

lol@JackStone, isn't it past your trolling bed time?

[Iain]

"So why is Boris doing this?"

If you wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt I suppose you might say he was asleep on the job and let this payment slip by him, then came up with a lame excuse. Of course there is the alternative possibility that Boris, in light of his desire to give illegals the right to live here, he is headed politically left wards at a rate of knots and thus is just another manifestation of his 'progressive' tendencies.

[Malcolm Redfellow]

OK: under different circumstances this would be a troll, pure, simple and deliberate.

What Isaby's precis omits is the damning evidence that the Blasted Boris regime did, or should have known what was the score.

Isaby omits that Richard Barnes was a speaker at the AGM of the Muslim Safety Forum in July.

He fails to report that Azad Ali was sacked from his Civil Service post in January. There used to be a huge graffito on the back of Muswell Hill Odeon: "Did you hear the one about the copper who was so dim the others noticed?" When the Civil Service take action of that kind, the others (in this case City Hall) must indeed have the lights out. The "Daily Mail" had that story on 22nd January: surely someone in City Hall reads that rag?

I detest Gilligan and all his works; but it seems to me he has the right stuff here. It also seems that Isaby is pussy-footing: why? The real Blasted Boris would have had hands in the air, saying stuff like "Fair cop. We cocked up." Instead we are getting equivocation.

[Susan]

Iain, thank you. Let's hope Boris was 'just asleep on the job'.

'Progressive' politics, to me at least, has the ring of 'post-democracy' to it - and I don't care for it at all.

[Jack Stone]

The fact that Boris as received a three thousand pound increase in his mayoral salary this year makes me think that if he was asleep on the job he bloody well should not have been!!!

[Kevin]

Boris has proved to be a pretty good example of what to expect from a Tory Government. The first thing he did was to ban booze on the tube. Typical authoritarian measure from someone who's just got their hands on a bit of power. Soon forgot the libertarian tag he'd been canvassing on. On top of that he hasn't fulfilled promises he made like reinstating the Blackwall Tunnel contraflow or re-phasing the traffic lights.

One spiteful gesture and a load of broken promises. Just like New Labour really, but there is no real difference anyway. No doubt he'll be off kow towing to the EU in the near future.

[snegchui]

"Check the commitments - Boris only honoured commitment made by the previous Mayor."

That's a cop out he's not obligated to honour Livingstone's commitments, otherwise if that was the case it would make elections pretty pointless!

Very good, so all of Livingstone's embedded landmines will give up their generous severance payments. Really?????
Go away and grow up.

[Super Blue]

His vitriol apart, has Jock Stale STILL not discovered how to spell "has" and "their"?

[Walter West]

The problem with something like this is that whilst the Mayor could decide not to honour a contract he would then open up the GLA/Mayor's Office to being sued for breach of contract - which would then even more than the £30,000.

It is also worth pointing out that quite a lot of the time when a new administration takes over a local authority they have to continue to honour previous contracts and/or agree with the other party to terminate the agreement. It is annoying, but there isn't a lot you can do about it if you don't want to end up in court.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this a contract is a contract and I believe in contract law.

[Jill, London]

I think Andrew Gilligan – and a number of posters here – are being very unfair to Boris. He’s obviously got lumbered with some crackpot contract set up by Comrade Livingstone, and breaking contracts requires a lot of money paid in compensation – often more than the money they are due to receive. And that’s London taxpayers’ money.

This whole situation highlights one of the many failings the government of all the Comrades made in setting up the London mayoralty [just as the government of all the Comrades has bungled so many things]. Not only is the person in office effectively an ‘elected dictator’ [played to the proverbial hilt by Comrade Livingstone], but they can make subjective, and personal political decisions – regarding hiring of people – or spending taxpayers’ money on ‘groups’ – that are not only locked in by contracts, but contracts that go beyond the four yearly election cycles.

I suspect the government of all the Comrades – like Comrade Livingstone – thought there would always be a Comrade Mayor. However, there is also the element of revenge whereby Livingstone’s successor is lumbered paying for ideology at odds with his own. No wonder Boris refers to Livingstone as “Banquo’s Ghost”!

I trust an incoming Conservative government will rectify this.

[Eastender]

This is the same Azad Ali who was a co-opted member of the Tower Hamlets Overview and Scrutiny Committee in his capacity as a parent governor.

[Adam-]

You can rest assured that the Trots in the offices of City Hall are working flat out to undermine Boris' mayorlty.

Expect more crackpot schemes to be sneaked through behind his back.

[Jack Stone]

So I presume by your failure to address the issue Superbore that you support this abuse of taxpayers money and believe that this waster of a Mayor is doing the same sort of tremendous job at living up to his responsibilities as we can expect from any future Conservative government.

[Super Blue]

Troll-Stone,

Given that you don't actually exist outside the dictionary, I didn't plan to dignify your ignorant third-hand smears with a reply, but here goes:

Livingstone signed some contracts and they included a payment last year, as several posters have said but you didn't notice. There will not be any payment of this kind to IslamISTS from now on - why not judge BoJo on what he does, not Livingstone?

Answer: because it wouldn't suit your ghost-writer's agenda!

[Jack Stone]

Judge him on what he does. Well he certainly couldn`t keep the buses running could he!!
By the way where did you get that answer. Straight off the City Hall web-site I bet!!

[OneNation]

Gilligan's probably under orders to stop being so embarrassingly partisan.

Unfortunately Boris has been something of a damp squib, a bungler with no vision. His bendy bus sideshow is a tremendous waste of taxpayers' money seeing as we have buses already.

So he's making Gilligan's job easy.

[Super Blue]

Jock Stale,

I have never visited the City Hall website in my life and I never expect to because Ipswich is not part of London - not that you would know that.

Now if the national supply of salt and grit were adequate, it would have been much easier to run buses last month, but it wasn't.