KEN Livingstone called for Boris Johnson to “get off his great backside” and stop tube strikes going ahead this evening.

The ex-London mayor hit out at his successor on a visit to Rayners Lane this morning where he spoke to commuters ahead of planned strike action starting this afternoon.

Trade union the RMT called for industrial action in a row over cuts to 800 jobs at ticket offices across the capital, including in Harrow and Brent.

The walk out will take place in two waves, at 5pm and 9pm, this evening and services on the underground will not be back to normal until Wednesday morning.

Mr Livingstone, who is campaigning to be Labour's candidate in the 2012 mayoral elections, poured criticism over Mr Johnson for not meeting the trade unions personally.

He said: “Of course this isn't fair on Londoners. The mayor should get off his great backside and sit down with the union leaders and sort out what's going on.

“This could go on for months. Refusing to talk is just stupid.”

The row is focused on cuts to ticket office opening times at tube stations and the job losses that will result.

Mr Johnson has been bitterly criticised over the plans having put his name to a campaign to save ticket offices from closing altogether during his election campaign in 2008.

Mr Livingstone was mayor when those plans were introduced and they were only scrapped once Mr Johnson won power.

But today Mr Livingstone defended his record, saying his scheme would not have involved job losses and claiming the staff would still have been available elsewhere in the station to help passengers.

He said: “We had a huge campaign about four years ago because a banker was stabbed to death as he left Kensal Rise station, which was unmanned.

“I gave a commitment that all the stations that came under the control of TfL would have staff in them.

“Nobody wants to come out of the station at 11pm seeing that there's no one on the platform and no one on the barrier.”

He said the move was also threatening working class jobs, describing working on the underground as one of the few remaining careers open to working class people who have not been to university.