GB News host Tom Harwood has launched a scathing attack on Transport for London Commissioner Andy Lord, after he claimed that people cleaning graffiti on London's tube network are "creating" the vandalism.Speaking at the London Assembly alongside Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, Lord told representatives: "Groups are taking it upon themselves to clear up graffiti on the tube network.FULL STORY HERE.
00:00Now, this caught my eye just a few minutes ago. It's utterly, utterly extraordinary and, to be honest, it knocked me sideways a little bit.
00:07It knocked you sideways?
00:10Well, myself and some friends have recently been cleaning graffiti off tubes, but Sadiq Khan's TFL chief seems to be suggesting that people like me,
00:21people like my friends, who give up our time to clean that graffiti, have been spraying it on ourselves so that we can look like we're cleaning it.
00:33Let's have a listen to what Andy Lord said about our cleaning.
00:38Groups aren't taking it upon themselves to clear up graffiti on the tube network.
00:44Firstly, I would ask anybody not to take this matter into their own hands.
00:50We also have evidence of people creating graffiti and then removing it.
00:55So that's being investigated by the relevant authorities.
01:01He thinks that we sprayed that on.
01:05Didn't he?
01:07I am absolutely, there is no one other than the Looking for Growth graffiti cleaning team that go out and clean the tubes.
01:14Are you sure?
01:15We do it. There is literally no one else that I've seen that does this.
01:17There is no way that he's referring to anyone other than me and my friends there.
01:22And I take that as absolutely extraordinary conspiracist.
01:26Frankly, he should take off his tinfoil hat.
01:28The fact that he can sit there next to the mayor of London and accuse me and my friends of spraying graffiti on the tube to then film it and, I don't know, get clicks online.
01:39I mean, what a nonsense conspiracy theory.
01:42I mean, the fact that the guy who runs TFL believes that people need to spray graffiti on the tube anyway clearly hasn't been on the tube in the last six months.
01:51There's no room to spray any more.
01:53I mean, it's completely littered with graffiti.
01:56I mean, I checked how much he's paid by the taxpayer, by the way.
01:58Right.
01:59Total remuneration last year, £639,164.
02:04No wonder he never gets the bloody tube.
02:06That's a lot of money, isn't it?
02:07No wonder he has no idea the state of the tube.
02:10But, I mean, I am actually fairly incensed.
02:12I need to ask a question though, Tom.
02:13Yeah.
02:14I need to ask a question.
02:15Has he responded to any of this?
02:16Not yet.
02:17Have you asked him for a response?
02:18Have you tagged him in it?
02:19Because I think he needs to answer whether he was referring to you and your crew.
02:24I think he clearly was.
02:25Because he may come back and say, oh, no, no, no, no.
02:28I was just saying in general, not talking about any specific people here, of course.
02:33He claims he has some sort of evidence.
02:34I want to see whatever bloomin evidence he thinks he has.
02:38I think he's making it up.
02:40I think he's trying to pretend that the tube is in a lot better state than it actually is.
02:46Because it's a mess.
02:47And that's why people have to go out and clear it up.
02:49Absolutely.
02:50And I think he's embarrassed.
02:51He's embarrassed that volunteers, that just some young guys from London decided to go out and clean some of this graffiti.
02:57Because it showed him up.
02:58It showed that it's possible to do.
03:00And it shows the state of the, not only the tubes themselves, but the politicians and the people in charge who just have zero ability to direct this service, to make it decent.
03:12Do you notice how often we're told to ignore the evidence of our own eyes by our politicians and bureaucrats?
03:18Like, it's getting, it's getting out of control.
03:22It's getting out of control.
03:23You know, we had, what's his chops, saying it's all women and girls on the boats.
03:27Oh, yes.
03:28And babies, of course.
03:29Right.
03:30We had that.
03:31All those small boats that are full of young men.
03:34No, no, no.
03:35It's just women and children.
03:36Yeah.
03:37And then, you're not seeing that graffiti.
03:39And if you are seeing it, it's only been sprayed on by gangs of people who want to show us up by cleaning it then off.
03:45I mean, this is the absolute insanity of it all.
03:50I mean, they live in a parallel, parallel world.
03:52I am absolutely amazed by this, but I want to make an offer to the TFL chief, Andy Lord.
04:00Andy, I will accompany you on a visit to the Bakerloo line.
04:07I can only assume you haven't ridden on one of the services that you're nominally in charge of in the last six months.
04:14And you haven't seen the state of these tube carriages.
04:17I want to make this open and clear offer to you right now.
04:21Andy Lord, come with me to see the Bakerloo line.
04:25Do you think all that graffiti you can see on the screen there, do you think I painted that on?
04:29Do you?
04:30No, you don't.
04:31You don't have the skill top.
04:32I mean, I don't have the skill.
04:33I don't have the paint.
04:34There's no skill in that.
04:35I've seen out of touch politicians in my time.
04:39But we're going to be showing another clip a little later on because this man who runs the TFL had some other clangers.
04:48I think some other suggestions that might be newsworthy.
04:51He certainly did.
04:52We're going to continue some more of the delightful contributions to our political discourse of Mr Tinfoil hat himself, Andy Lord, in just a few moments' time.
05:00I'm sure he would dispute.
05:01I'm sure he denies that he's a conspiracy theorist and people can make their own minds up.
