700,000 call on Khan to reverse Uber ban

London Mayor Sadiq Khan was last night under growing pressure to reverse the decision to banish Uber from the capital.

nearly 700,000 people have signed a petition set up by the controversial taxi-hailing phone app urging him to back down. Campaigners yesterday warned that banning Uber would make women less safe by forcing them to take public transport and unlicensed taxis late at night.

and Uber tried to back Mr Khan into a corner by saying it wants to strike a peace deal and could offer concessions including sick pay for drivers and limits on their working hours.

Uber hopes to sit at the negotiating table with the mayor and transport for London (TFL), which ruled on Friday that Uber is ‘not fit and proper’ to hold a taxi licence. a key reason given was its failure to report serious criminal offences.

Uber also claimed that Mr Khan and TFL have refused to meet it for detailed talks, and have not been clear about what it needs to do to ensure its

‘Improving safety’

licence is renewed. tom Elvidge, Uber’s general manager in London, said: ‘We’d like to know what we can do... to sit down and work together to get this right.’

Speaking to the Sunday times, he added: ‘ We haven’t been asked to make any changes... that requires a dialogue we haven’t been able to have.’

TFL declined to comment. a source close to Mr Khan said he was not involved in the decision to suspend Uber’s licence, arguing this was made by officials in TFL’s licensing section.

But Croydon South tory MP Chris Philp, said: ‘it is disgraceful that Sadiq Khan took away Uber’s licence without even bothering to sit down with them and discuss what needs to change first.

‘Clearly there are things that Uber needs to do to improve. But if Mr Khan is serious about improving safety he should have sat down with Uber.’