Safe travel is a priority, says new Mayor

Boris Johnson officially takes over today as the first Conservative Mayor of London with a pledge to boost safety on the London Underground as his immediate priority.

Travellers will be banned within days from drinking alcohol on the Tube and the recruitment of 440 extra police officers to patrol trains and station platforms will begin this week. Work will also begin on installing airport-style hand-held scanners and knife arches in stations.

Key advisers will be called into City Hall today to draw up detailed plans for implementing the manifesto on which he successfully stood against the Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone. Mr Johnson is committed to an inquiry into bureaucratic waste at City Hall, which is expected to lead to a 20 per cent cut in the Mayor's publicity and marketing budget. He will also hold a fresh consultation into the extension of London's £8 congestion charge zone westwards into Kensington and Chelsea.

The new Mayor has already met Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and the chiefs of the capital's fire service and transport network.

Mr Johnson said: "I have instructed members of my team to crack on with implementing our manifesto pledges as soon as we are physically able to do so. I will work night and day to deliver that change in London. A tireless approach is what Londoners demand and I will step up that challenge. It is now time to get down to business."

During a visit to a celebration in Trafalgar Square to mark the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi, Mr Johnson pledged to work to unite the city. He dismissed suggestions that he would not support events such as this as "a canard floated by the outgoing Mayor".

Mr Johnson said he had demanded tough action during his meeting with Sir Ian: "I made it very clear I want to see a dramatic reduction in crime, beginning with driving out so-called minor crime, particularly in the areas for which the Mayor has responsibility, and above all on public transport," he said.

Dozens of well-wishers turned out to meet Mr Johnson as he toured the stalls, congratulating him and posing for photographs.

The Mayor seemed delighted with the reception, greeting people warmly and even posing for photographs in a police officer's cap. "The past few days have been very, very exciting and very, very exhausting, but this is the single most wonderful job in British politics," he said.

"It's a fantastic chance to give a voice to London and unite London. I am going to be a Mayor for all London and work to unite communities. One of the wonderful things we have got in London is fantastic diversity – we have got the whole world in a city."

Mr Johnson said that violence among young people was the biggest problem facing the city. On Saturday 15-year-old Lyle Tulloch, from Peckham, was stabbed to death in Southwark, south-east London, becoming the 12th teenager to be murdered in the capital this year.

Mr Johnson said he hoped there would be a boom in the provision of educational and social activities to keep children off the streets and cut the problem of teenage violence.

"I am not pretending we can transform this overnight, but it is the job of the Mayor to give a lead, and I won't rest until we have started to make a difference," he said. "I would like to send my deep condolences to Lyle's family. I am sure the thoughts of millions of Londoners are with them today."

But there was scepticism over his commitment to reaching out to all the capital's communities. Rumeet Uberoi, from a Sikh charity which helps the homeless, said: "We will see how he does with the minorities. He needs to prove to people like us he's going to support us – it's not just about the suburbs."

Diane Abbott, the Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, described him as "an accident waiting to happen". She claimed David Cameron would be living in fear of what he might do, telling Sky News: "Everybody in Cameron's office are crossing their fingers. Ken Livingstone knew about running a local authority – Boris knows nothing."

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