A British government minister has slammed the London officials for deciding to strip Uber of its taxi licence, a significant setback to the United States company that has become a big player in transport system of the city.
London’s transport regulator found Uber unfit to operate a tax service and stated its licence would not be restored when it expires on September 30. London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a member of the Labour Party, supported the move.
“At the flick of a pen Sadiq Khan is threatening to put 40,000 individuals out of work and leave 3.5 million users of Uber stranded,” wrote Greg Hands, the government minister for London, on Twitter on Friday.
He stated Uber had to resolve safety issues and it was necessary that there was an equal opportunity across the private hire market.
However, “blanket ban will cause massive inconvenience to millions of Londoners, showing that the mayor is closed to business & innovation,” Hands tweeted. “Once again the actions of Labour leave ordinary working people (to) pay the price for it.”
Khan said: “All private-hire operators in London have to play by the rules. The safety and security of consumers must be paramount.”
Uber has stated it will object to the decision. Regulator Transport for London (TfL) stated it would let Uber run until the appeals procedure is exhausted.
Uber has relied on clients to help protect itself in other battles worldwide, and an online petition to support Uber in London gathered almost 430,000 signatures by early Saturday.
In Friday’s announcement, TfL pointed out issues about Uber’s approach to reporting severe criminal offenses, background checks on drivers and software that could be used to obstruct regulators from getting complete access to the app.
