Why Boris Johnson’s call for driverless Tube trains is a political stunt

Analysis: You won't be riding in a driverless Tube train for many years, Jon Stone explains

(Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Boris Johnson has told Sadiq Khan that introducing driverless trains on the Tube should be a "condition" of a future bail-out of Transport for London. But the reality is that you won't be travelling on one anytime soon, no matter how this political row is resolved.

Driverless trains have long been a hobby horse for London's Conservatives, who see them as a way of bypassing unionised Tube workers. Boris Johnson said he would bring them in when he was Mayor, and didn't. Go back a little and you can find an Evening Standard headline from October 1977 boasting that there will be "Driverless Tubes in service by 1990". There weren't.

The background to the prime minister's latest demand is important to understand what's going on.