Cuts will make each Londoner £5,000 poorer, says Ken Livingstone

Londoners could each be £5,625 worse off as a result of Whitehall cuts over the next mayoral term, according to a report today.

In a detailed analysis, Ken Livingstone's mayoral bid team found that the capital as a whole would lose out by at least £45 billion by 2016.

The former mayor said the cuts would hit middle class and wealthy Londoners as well as the poor.

Mr Livingstone said: "The scale of the Government's cuts is breathtaking. Their agenda is entirely ideological —there are alternatives that do not involve slashing services, jobs and pay, and risking pushing us back into economic downturn.

"These will be cuts at a level far worse than those introduced by Margaret Thatcher. Thousands of Londoners of all backgrounds are going to be worse off."

He added: "Boris Johnson will do everything humanly possible to avoid culpability. But the Government's cuts are his cuts."

Mr Livingstone claimed London would be hit "disproportionately" hard by the savings outlined by George Osborne in his first Budget as it receives 14 per cent of public spending. There are nearly 800,000 public sector workers in the capital— accounting for 21 per cent of employees — meaning public job cuts would also bite.

He suggested that cuts to housing benefit were particularly aimed at London because of the high level of rent in the capital and that 15,000 Londoners could lose their homes.

Town halls in London are also expected to lose at least £355 million this year from Whitehall while Londoners face cuts to child trust funds, school building projects, the future jobs fund, higher education and the freezing of many benefits.

London government expert Tony Travers said: "However important London is to the economy it is going to have to take some of the cuts.

"Spending in real terms could fall by the amount Ken suggests, it isn't necessarily a massive exaggeration. People still haven't fully grasped the full scale of what's going to happen to public expenditure.

"The Government has created a problem for Boris Johnson here. They have been so willing to state the scale of the problem, they've created an opportunity for Ken Livingstone."

The Labour Party today sent out ballot papers for the race to be its mayoral candidate. Former MP Oona King is standing against Mr Livingstone.