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The union-bashing Evening Standard took over £500,000 in advertising revenue from Transport for London (TfL) after attacking the London transport network for spending £1,000 on commemorative posters of Bob Crow, the Star can reveal.
Rail union RMT, which Mr Crow led until his untimely death earlier this year aged 52, slammed the “rank hypocrisy” of a newspaper “afloat on a stream of public money.”
Posters featuring a portrait shot of Mr Crow were displayed at London Underground stations on the day of his funeral in March this year.
Responding to a freedom of information request from the Standard, Tube bosses said they had spent £1,050 to “acquire the rights to Mr Crow’s photograph.”
As the poster was sent electronically to be printed at stations, it said the cost of printing and display was “negligible.”
But when contacted by the Star yesterday, Transport for London (TfL) revealed it had spent £551,404 on taking out ads in the London evening paper last year.
A spokeswoman said: “Advertising is a key way we reach our customers to explain changes and improvements made to the transport network and to communicate important behaviour change campaigns, such as road and cycle safety.”
But RMT acting general secretary Mick Cash was not impressed. “The Evening Standard’s story was a nasty and tasteless piece that was shocking even by that paper’s long-running, anti-union tradition.
“However, we now find that it is laced with the most rank hypocrisy as the Morning Star has uncovered figures showing that the Standard soaks up more than a half-a-million pounds in advertising from TfL and the Tube, putting spending on the Bob Crow posters firmly into context.
“The union-bashing Standard is afloat on a stream of public money that would be better invested in transport services. That is the real scandal that has emerged out of this sordid exercise in muckraking.”
The Standard was under pressure last week after an online post from a supposed Islamic extremist was traced back to the Kensington headquarters it shares with the Mail and Independent titles. Anti-fascist campaign group Hope not Hate said the debacle “smacks of entrapment.”
