Freedom Pass: Fact check of Boris Johnson’s GMB interview claim about free bus travel for pensioners in London

Serious doubts have been cast over Boris Johnson’s claim that he introduced the 24 hour freedom pass for pensioners during his time as Mayor of London.

During a bruising interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the Prime Minister was challenged on what he was doing to alleviate the impact of the cost of living crisis on millions of Brits.

He was told of the case of a 77-year-old viewer called Elsie, who has seen her energy bill soar and cut down to one meal a day.

Told that she spent the day travelling on buses to stay out of her home and keep her bills down, former London mayor Mr Johnson interjected to say: “The 24-hour freedom bus pass was actually something that I introduced.”

The comments attracted criticism for appearing to be tin-eared when told of the pensioner’s plight, but they have also raised doubts as to their veracity.

It also echoes a false claim made by Mr Johnson’s mayoral rival in 2012 Ken Livingstone, who also suggested he introduced the Freedom Pass to senior citizens during the election campaign.

As was pointed out at the time by one of Mr Johnson’s transport advisers at City Hall, Andrew Gilligan, free travel for pensioners was introduced by the Greater London Council in 1973.

When the GLC was dissolved in the mid-1980s, the pass was then funded by the 33 London boroughs, and it was not until the 1990s that it was branded the Freedom Pass.

In 2010, it was decided that the age of eligibility of the Freedom Pass would rise on an escalator in line with the retirement age of women, rather than at the age of 60.

In 2012, when Mr Johnson was London mayor, he introduced a bridging pass that allowed someone who turned 60 to gain the free travel privileges as a pensioner up until they receive a Freedom Pass.

It is this that he is claiming to have introduced in his ITV interview.

Under the terms of the travel card, pass holders were entitled to travel on all Transport for London services at any time, including peak hours.

But in June 2020, Mr Johnson’s government brought an end to the 24-hr Freedom Pass as a result of the pandemic. As one of the conditions for giving TfL a bailout due to plunging passenger numbers during the Covid outbreak, the Government insisted that Freedom Passes were only eligible after 9.30am.

Claim: “The 24hr Freedom Pass was something I introduced,” Boris Johnson, May 2022

Fact check: Mr Johnson is taking credit for policies that go far beyond what he actually introduced during his time as Mayor of London.