Croydon tram crash memorial. Pic: Mayor’s Press Office

A Tory politician has accused Sadiq Khan misconduct of in the wake of the 2016 Croydon tram crash.

Keith Prince, who is the Conservative transport spokesperson at City Hall, spoke out against the Mayor of London, calling for an independent investigation into Transport for London’s (TfL’s) conduct in the aftermath of the tragedy.

The crash killed seven people and left a further 62 injured after a speeding tram was derailed at Sandilands junction.

Following the incident, it emerged that TfL had failed to disclose a report into fatigue risk management on the tram network with an official enquiry into the crash.

TfL claimed this was a result of “human error”, and investigators said the report would not have substantially impacted their findings.

However, earlier this month, in a cross-party motion, the London Assembly called on the Mayor to appoint an independent investigation into TfL’s conduct.

The Conservative motion was supported by the Greens, Brexit Alliance Group, and the Liberal Democrat member, while the Labour group abstained from the vote.

During the Mayor’s Question Time last week, Mr Prince challenged Sadiq Khan multiple times to answer yes or no to his call for an independent investigation.

He said the Mayor was “afraid” to respond, and that there was clearly “something to hide”.

Mr Prince continued: “I was quite happy to believe there was just human error in this but it seems that lots of people are conspiring to stop there being an investigation, and that’s very strange.”

The Mayor said: “Transport for London and I are committed to supporting all those affected by the tragedy and our attention has been focused on preventing anything like this ever happening again.”

Mr Khan ensured that  TfL had been cooperative throughout the enquiry, and had apologised “repeatedly and unreservedly” for the “human error” that led to the report not being shared with investigators.