London mayor halves transport funding request from Budget

However, asked earlier this week what he will be requesting from the new government, Khan said: “I’ll be asking for north of £250m. The £250m we got last year was before the £22bn black hole in the government’s year-to-year expenditure.”

The chancellor’s claim that she had inherited a £22bn gap in the public finances was met with ridicule by her Conservative opponents.

Her predecessor, Hunt, said she would “fool absolutely no one” and accused her of a “shameless attempt” to lay the groundwork for tax rises in her upcoming Budget.

But Khan insisted Reeves had been forced to find ways to “make ends meet”, and said, in that context: “I’ll ask for as much as I can get. But what I’m saying is, a win is getting anything more than £250m.”

He said the “real prize” will be at the spring spending review where he hoped to secure a multi-year deal for funding after the 2025/26 financial year.