Boris slammed over London’s snow day

Has the moment Boris Johnson's critics have been waiting for finally arrived? The London Mayor lost his cool and stormed out of a House of Commons inquiry today as MPs quizzed him over the apparent collapse of London's transport infrastructure after the heavy snow in February.
 
He reacted angrily to what he saw as party political bias from members of the Transport Select Committee, and accused them of "talking tripe" and being "pathetic" after they said he had not carried out his responsibilities as mayor and that London had shut down in a way that did not happen anywhere else in the UK.
 
At one point he attempted to leave the hearing, only to sit down again after committee chairman Louise Ellman said his behaviour was "unacceptable" and warned him that he had agreed to give evidence for 45 minutes.
 
Johnson let his jovial persona slip under questioning from the committee. "It is not within my competence to stop the biggest downfall of snow we have had over the skies of this city for 20 years," he said.
 
He also sprang to the defence of transport workers in the capital. "The people responsible for transport in London, those getting the buses and Tubes out, actually did an outstanding job," he claimed. There had been 30 road accidents before the decision to halt bus services was taken, he said. "I would ask the committee to consider just how many accidents you would like to have seen?" he added.
 
Asked what he personally had done prior to the problems on the evening of February 1, the mayor replied: "I observed that it had started to snow." He also commented that, "we created a lasagne of grit and snow".
 
Despite his rousing defence of London's public transport workers, it emerged today that in the three months to the end of February Johnson spent £1,501 in cab fares, an average of £16.31 a day. His predecessor Ken Livingstone spent less than half that amount (£729) in his final year as mayor. ·