The Mayor of London Boris Johnson MP, responding to the RMT, ASLEF and UNITE leaderships decision to strike over the night tube said: "Today’s decision to strike has been orchestrated by union barons without ever properly consulting their members. It is an absolute disgrace.
“The night tube will be of massive benefit to London’s economy, it’s supported by the vast majority of Londoners, it means thousands of jobs for Londoners and hundreds of jobs for London Underground, and there will be no changes to the work life balance of staff. It was accompanied by a very fair financial offer for drivers who already take home nearly £50,000 a year for a 36 hour week with 43 days holiday. Incredibly that wasn’t enough for union bosses. They chose to reject our offer – again without ever properly consulting their membership.
“Not content with holding a series of strikes in pursuit of their outrageous demands they even used the talks over the night tube to try and bully their way to a new four-day week, something that would have been completely unaffordable for TfL and for London's fare payers.
“LU, TfL and City Hall won’t bow to unreasonable demands. LU has advertised for 200 new part-time drivers. We’ve had over six thousand applications, many from existing drivers who want to work on the night tube, even if their union bosses don’t want them to.
“Today’s decision to strike makes it abundantly clear that the union leadership is hell bent on preventing not just their own members from doing these jobs but anyone else from working the night tube as well.
“These strikes are absurd. They will hit the travelling public, business and hard-working tube staff, many of whom clearly don’t believe in this nonsense. And for what? Ultimately it will do nothing to prevent the advent of the night tube – a 24 hour service for a 21st century city.”