Sadiq Khan COVER UP: London Mayor dealt MAJOR blow as ex-Crossrail chair FIGHTS BACK

The London Mayor claimed that he did not find out about the delay to Crossrail until the end of August, suggesting Sir Terry Morgan “misremembered” what he told the Mayor about the opening. Speaking at the London Assembly, Sir Terry Morgan insisted that he does “not suffer from loss of memory”. The former chair of Crossrail repeated his claims that he told the London Mayor on July 26 that the delivery of Crossrail in 2018 was “not feasible”.

Sir Terry also accused Transport for London of “giving” him a sheet containing what to say at a board meeting on July 25, with no reference about them not being about to deliver the project.

He said: “It is also true to say that, there was a TFL board meeting on the 25 July, I just want to clarify that, it never happened before, but I was given a sheet.

“Despite what was being said on December 19 I was given a sheet by TFL about what to say at that board meeting.

“That took out any reference to not being able to deliver the programme in 2018.”

He later added: “I saw the Mayor on July 26 and I guess you will come back to that.

“I stick to my line on this. I don’t know what other interpretation in English terms you can give to the fact that we said ‘the delivery of Crossrail in 2018 was not feasible’. Full stop.

“There was no other information provided.”

Deputy mayor Heidi Alexander alleged the claims that the December 2018 opening date had been ruled out was “simply not true and it did not happen”.

The Elizabeth line will provide travel from Heathrow in the west to Abbey Wood in the east.

The new London line was originally due to open on 9 December but was pushed back to next year due to issues with signalling testing.

A TfL spokesperson said: “It is completely untrue that TfL chose to draft a script for Sir Terry Morgan to use at the 25 July TfL Board meeting.

“At a pre-meeting for the TfL Board held on 24 July, Sir Terry went through what he intended to say and subsequently asked if someone would write this up as an aide memoire for him to use. This short summary purely reflected our understanding of what Sir Terry himself wanted to say. Nothing in this material ‘omitted’ anything about the opening date of Crossrail.”

City Hall have also been contacted by Express.co.uk for comment.