A LABOUR politician has hit back at criticism of his expenses by Boris Johnson.

London's Tory Mayor called for a “long period of silence” from Tony McNulty, the Labour candidate for Harrow East, on a visit to the town centre on Monday.

Mr Johnson made the comments when faced with criticism of plans to cut funding for the police and tube station ticket offices.

Mr McNulty, a former policing minister, said Mr Johnson was simply distracting attention away from cuts he is making to the Met, and said resorting to "personal abuse" was "just the measure of the man".

He said: "Boris goes out of his way all the time to make distracting comments to detract from the questions he cannot answer on the police.

“There's going to be a five per cent cut this year alone. He's had ample opportunities to guarantee the future of safer neighbourhoods teams and he's failed to do so."