Uber fights back with petition after TfL launches consultation

Taxi hailing company gathers 90,000 signatures as Institute of Directors accuses mayor of heavy-handedness

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, has been put on the spot over the launch of a consultation process being viewed as a crude attempt to curb the explosive growth in London of Uber, the taxi hailing app.

Simon Walker, the director general of the Institute of Directors, said that Johnson, together with chancellor George Osborne and business secretary Sajid Javid, should be reducing regulation in the capital's taxi and private car hire market rather than bringing in new and stiffer rules. Walker was responding to a set of proposals from Transport for London (TfL), revealed on Tuesday, which are said to reflect the mayor's concerns about traffic congestion in London. Johnson is the chair of TfL.