Sadiq Khan cracked a joke at his Tory mayor rival Susan Hall’s expense when he pretended he had been pickpocketed on the Tube.
Addressing the City Hall Christmas party on Thursday night, Mr Khan said: “Sorry I’m late everyone, the copy of my speech was pickpocketed on the way.”
He then brandished a copy of his speech, saying “Oh wait, here it is!”
Last month, Ms Hall revealed she believed she had been pickpocketed when she could not find her Freedom Pass Oyster card after travelling home on the Jubilee and Metropolitan lines.
But she was subjected to online ridicule after a fellow passenger found the wallet and returned it to her - with the cash still inside.
Ms Hall later told LBC that she had no idea what had happened but insisted she was right to raise the issue of rising crime rates on the Tube.
On Friday, her campaign team declined to offer a response to the mayor’s remarks.
It came as Mr Khan was viewing the first Central line train to be refurbished under a £500m programme that will keep the 30-year-old trains running for another 10 to 15 years.
The new trains are fitted with CCTV for the first time, with two “fish-eye” lens attached to the ceiling of each of the seven carriages.
The mayor told the Standard he was “so impressed” with the refit. “It looks like a new train,” he said.
“They have managed to change everything, but at massively reduced cost. There is CCTV now on the Central line, the possibility for wheelchairs to be properly parked, better lit and we have a new moquette.”
Asked why the Central line was not following the Piccadilly line in getting new trains, he said: “Basically, the Government has not given us the funding we need.
“We are having to be imaginative in how we spend what we have. The great thing about TfL is that they have the innovation, working with great fitters and manufacturers across the country, to improve these trains and prolong their lives.”
Last month the Standard revealed that crime on the London Underground had soared by 56 per cent, fuelled by big increases in theft and robbery.
Asked how safe the Tube was for passengers, Mr Khan said: “All the evidence suggests that public transport in London is a low crime environment.
“When you compare crime on public transport in London versus crime on the national rail, it’s almost half.”
The refurbished trains have new motors – which should address worsening reliability problems that results in delays when trains have to be taken out of service, new lighting and new seating.
The new seat pattern is called Tuppeny, a reference to the Central line’s heritage. When it was launched it became known as the Twopenny Tube or Tuppeny Tube due to the cost of a fare.
The first newly refurbished train is running occasional “shuttles” – carrying passengers - between Hainault and Woodford to test the improvements, including the public intercom, which Tube bosses admit is currently very loud.
The Central line, the longest line on the Underground, is only narrowly behind the Northern line and Jubilee line in terms of passenger numbers. It is currently used for about 4.5m journeys a week.
The Central Line Improvement Programme (CLIP) will take five trains out of service at a time over the next four years.
The project involves stripping the line trains down to the frame, with about half the parts either replaced or improved.
