Political reporter
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has said he hopes his video of himself confronting fare evaders on the London Underground will “shame people into action”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Matt Chorley, Jenrick said activities such as fare dodging along with graffiti and playing music on public transport were “chipping away at society”.
Asked if his party’s policy of austerity was a contributing factor, Jenrick said he believed in being “honest about the mistakes of the last Conservative government”.
Responding to Jenrick’s video, Transport for London (TfL) said fare evasion was “unacceptable” and that it was expanding its team of investigators to “target the most prolific fare evaders”.
In the video, which has had more than 3.5 million views on the social media platform X, Jenrick is seen challenging a number of people squeezing through barriers in an apparent effort to avoid paying the fare.
Along with the video, he posted a message reading: “Sadiq Khan is driving a proud city into the ground. Lawbreaking is out of control. He’s not acting. So, I did.”
Explaining his reasons for making the video, Jenrick said he was “sick to death of people fare dodging” and felt he needed to “highlight the issue”.
“It’s about the authorities – in this instance Tfl or the police – not stepping up and not enforcing the rules,” he said.
“It makes most people feel silly, feel foolish. Why are they paying for their fares on the Tube when others aren’t doing so.”
Asked if he had sought permission from TfL to make a video on their premises, he replied “I didn’t know that was their rule”, adding: “They should be going after people breaking the law, not the rules.”
TfL said it aimed to reduce the rate of evasion, which costs the organisation more than £100m a year, to 1.5% by 2030.
Last month, it reported that the evasion rate for 2024/25 was averaging 3.4%, down from 3.8% in the previous year.
TfL also pointed to statistics suggesting levels of fare evasion in New York stood at 13%.
Announcing a new fare evasion strategy earlier this month, TfL said it was using data and CCTV to analyse travel patterns to focus on “those who evade fares repeatedly”.
In the press release, TfL said it continued to “tackle blatant fare evasion such as gate-pushing” which it said created “an intimidating atmosphere for staff and customers”.
It added: “TfL is increasing the number of accredited enforcement officers on its network who can refuse entry and remove people from stations, and deploying them to locations with high prevalence of people pushing through gates.”
In recent months Jenrick has made similar videos on litter-dropping and theft of trade tools, leading to suggestions he is running an ongoing campaign to be Conservative Party leader.
Jenrick stood in the last leadership contest but came second to Kemi Badenoch.
Asked if he still wanted to be Tory leader, he replied: “No, absolutely not… I’m just trying to do my job.”
He said Badenoch would lead his party into the next election, adding that the Tory Party had “been in tough spots before but has always bounced back”.
Jenrick was recently seen having lunch with Rupert Lowe, an independent MP who was expelled from Reform UK earlier this year.
Asked if he would like Lowe to join the Conservatives, Jenrick said: “I want the Tory Party to be the natural home for any small-c conservatives in this country…
“Rupert is somebody who has taken strong lines on things like border control, like crime, on how we build a more integrated country.”
However, Jenrick said he had not asked Lowe to join the party and Lowe “hasn’t asked to”.
“Ultimately it’s for him to decide what his future is and for Kemi, as leader of the party, to decide if he or anybody else is suitable to join us,” he added.
