Boris Johnson must roll up his sleeves and face this mess

All around us we are being given terrible news. News of public services we rely on being cut and jobs that are to be lost. A squeeze is being put on the vast majority — cuts to child trust funds, to the programme of upgrading our school buildings, to higher education, free school meals. The list is endless.

The risk is that it will endanger the possibility of a sustained economic recovery. Cuts to the improvements to our school buildings damage the quality of education for our children but they also hurt the construction industry, already facing a collapse in new business.

In London we have our own added problems, with Boris Johnson's cuts to police numbers, higher bus fares and broken promises on affordable housing. Only this week, as this paper revealed, his transport adviser announced a 40 per cent funding cut for bus services.

Meanwhile, with the possibility of further devastating Tube strikes, Boris Johnson has his blinkers on.

No one wants a strike on the Underground. But the Mayor's inaction appears to be making that happen by default.

I want Boris to roll up his sleeves and solve this dispute. If he does not Londoners will be the ones to suffer. Yet Boris says he won't meet the unions while they are in dispute with him. That's complete nonsense — what is the point of a Mayor who will only negotiate with people who already agree with him?

It is a scandal that he has never had direct across-the-table meetings with the leaders of either of the unions involved. Boris's position amounts to telling Londoners to get on their bikes. At the bottom of all this is a broken promise on frontline services — Boris pledged that he would protect Tube ticket office opening hours. He's ratted on that and plans to reduce not only ticket- office staff but gate-line and station staff.

Overall, some 800 station jobs will vanish from the network. That's a serious issue.

The current administration at City Hall appears to blame others when things get difficult, or shuts down media accountability like regular press conferences, to avoid responsibility.

So I'm issuing a challenge to Boris today to start to engage with the tough issues that really matter in this city, by debating with me in town halls across London about neighbourhood policing, transport services and fares, housing and crime.

We need a debate on London's future over the next year that prepares the ground for the most important mayoral election we have seen. The scale of the reduction in support for key services such as transport and policing is potentially very grave.

London can make a difference.

A defeat for the Conservatives in London in 2012 would rally opposition to the damage that the Government is doing and give them pause for thought.

And that outcome would provide a springboard for a change of government, under Ed Miliband, that is more committed to the investment and sustainable growth our economy desperately needs.