Boris Johnson has been accused of using misleading figures about bus crime statistics, which show Merton has seen the third highest increase in London in the last year.

According to the most recent statistics published by Transport for London (TfL), bus crime in Merton increased by 9 per cent between April 2010 and March 2011, second only to Barking and Dagenham (18 per cent) and Tower Hamlets (12 per cent).

The claims were made in response to a Conservative party pamphlet distributed by the London Mayor, who is seeking re-election next year, which claimed “Merton’s buses among safest in Europe”.

It explained: “...attacks on commuters have fallen by 23 per cent and robberies by 20 per cent after Boris Johnson’s targeted campaign to make travelling on public transport safer.”

It claimed that bus crime in Merton had fallen by 19 per cent, but this is based on Metropolitan police figures for the four calendar years from 2007 to 2008.

Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, said: “Just three months ago the chairman of the UK Statistics Authority warned Boris Johnson that the way the Mayor of London was using the bus crime data could ‘be damaging to public trust in the statistics’.

“The Mayor must stop spinning dubious claims and get on with the job of making Londoners safer on public transport throughout London".

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