The Mayor of London has washed his hands of the Met Line extension.

The future of the multi-million pound scheme was in doubt after Sadiq Khan omitted it from the TfL draft business plan in December.

It was dealt a further blow earlier this year after Transport for London revealed there was a £50 million black hole in the funding.

And now Sadiq Khan has said that because the project lies outside of London, the responsibility lies with the Government.

Richard Wood, on behalf of Mr Khan, said: “This project is outside London and therefore responsibility for delivering it ultimately lies with the Government.

“The previous mayor committed £49 million of London taxpayers’ money to delivering it without properly working out how much it would cost.

“Since then, estimated costs have spiralled by at least an additional £50 million - TfL are happy to discuss with the Government how this funding gap can be filled, but as this scheme is outside London it is not right that London taxpayers should have to pay even more towards it.

“London taxpayers would expect nothing less.”

Watford Observer:

A timeline of the project

An FOI request by the Observer revealed that £130 million of taxpayers’ money has already been spent on the project, but the Mayor has said “not a penny more” of London taxpayers' money will be allocated to it.  

Following his decision to scrap a controversial garden bridge across the Thames, his spokesperson said any freed-up funding would not go towards to the Met Line.

Mr Wood said: “Not signing the Garden Bridge maintenance agreement does not suddenly free up any funding as Sadiq has always been clear that not a penny more of taxpayers' money should be allocated to that project.”

TfL now estimates the project will cost £334 million, but the Department for Transport has ruled out supplying any extra funding and said it expected the scheme to be delivered for £284 million as agreed between TfL and the government in 2015.

Under this agreement, TfL agreed to give £49m to support delivery, while local funding partners agreed to provide £125 million and the DfT, £109.8m.

When plans for the project, initially known as the Croxley Rail Link, were first approved in 2011, it was expected to be delivered under the management of Hertfordshire County Council, at a cost of £116.8 million.

TfL took over the scheme in 2015 and after costs rose to £280 million, the funding deal was agreed between the DfT, TfL and the county council.