Roll out the ballots: Aslef to vote on Tube strike action as Khan shakes 'money train'

...and TSSA set to follow suit as Mayor stonewalls questions at City Hall

- Ross Lydall

TUBE drivers are set to be balloted on possible strike action as the row over Mayor Sadiq Khan’s £30 million “magic money train” deal to avert a week of walkouts intensified, the Evening Standard can reveal.

Mr Khan, inset, unexpectedly found extra funds from City Hall to boost the annual pay rise for 16,000 Tube staff — a move that led the RMT union to suspend action that would have shut the London Underground until Friday.

But critics said Mr. Khan’s unprecedented intervention on Sunday, when he was ridiculed for having discovered a “magic money tree”, had “instantly backfired” and meant Londoners faced a greater threat of strikes.

The Standard can today reveal that Aslef, which represents the majority of Tube drivers, is about to re-ballot its 2,000 members to enable it to retain the power to call a strike at a fortnight’s notice. Its current six-month strike “mandate” — which was supported by 99 percent of its Tube drivers — expires at the start of next month.

Aslef members had accepted a five percent offer, on the basis that Transport for London could not afford any more, but are now understood to have “lost all trust” in the Mayor and TfL after the extra cash was found to pay off the RMT.