When Sally Bercow met Ken... to attack 'unfair' fares

Mrs Bercow made the comment during a speech at a Ken Livingstone fares rally in King's Cross that she attended with fellow Celebrity Big Brother contestant Paddy Doherty.

The Labour activist, who is married to Tory Commons Speaker John Bercow, hit out at the London Mayor's policy during her speech at the "Ken's Fare Deal" rally last night which also heard speeches by MP Tom Watson, Tessa Jowell and Labour mayoral hopeful Mr Livingstone.

Mrs Bercow, 41, surprised onlookers by appearing at the event with the My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star and a television crew.

She is filming a new Channel 5 show titled When Paddy Met Sally with Doherty, 52, who won the Celebrity Big Brother programme.

He will share his caravan with Mrs Bercow to give her a taste of the traveller lifestyle before coming to live with the Speaker's wife in London.

Mrs Bercow spoke about Mr Livingstone's pledge to cut fares by five per cent. She said: "I've seen [Mr Johnson's] callous disregard for the real transport needs of real people...I've been utterly repelled."

She added that she wanted to "stop Tory Mr Johnson's unfair fares policy in its tracks".

Mrs Bercow said: "Ken has an amazing track record and he loves this city. Boris doesn't understand people like Ken does."

Mr Doherty said: "I wanted to listen to the man speak from the heart. He's fantastic." Mr Livingstone has promised to dramatically lower transport fares if elected in May next year.

Mr Johnson has said the policy would take £850million out of Transport for London's coffers during the course of the next mayoral term and that there is no money for Mr Livingstone's fare cuts. He will raise fares by an average of seven per cent in January.

Mr Livingstone today said that new figures show that in the first half of this year TfL accumulated a £206million surplus.

He said: "Today's TfL report demonstrates why a fare cut is affordable.

"Londoners will be staggered that the Mayor and TfL also built up a massive £729million surplus last year which is just sitting in TfL's bank. It's not too late for Boris Johnson to think again and use this money to cut the cost of travel for ordinary Londoners rather than hoarding it up."

A spokesman for the Mayor said: "Londoners should not be misled by the previous Mayor's cockeyed plan. The simple facts of the matter are that every penny of TfL's budget is accounted for to pay for the upgrade of the capital's transport system."