Prime Minister tells ITV News London 'lessons must be learned' on bus driver working conditions

In a sit down interview with ITV News London, Andy Burnham said working conditions for London bus drivers are a big concern.

"It does concern me and I'm sure it concerns Sadiq and Transport for London as well. We have lived through a very hot summer and it posed real problems on the transport system, on buses, but also on the rail system.

"We're going to have to learn from these things and improve our resilience going forward and put in place the facilities to make the working environment bearable for people. So I would never turn away from those things." He said.

It comes after a summer of extreme weather, which heightened concerns about the working conditions of bus drivers, particularly the lack of proper toilet facilities and the heat inside bus cabs.

Many striking drivers say temperatures have been so high in bus cabs that drivers risk causing fatal crashes and passing out at the wheel.

Some even likened their cabs to being in a greenhouse or oven, with temperatures exceeding 40C as a result of having no air conditioning in record heatwave conditions.

Another key concern from drivers is the lack of toilet facilities.

An ITV News London Freedom of Information request found that toilet provision across the capital's bus network is worse than many passengers might expect, with some routes lacking facilities at either end of the journey and others relying on a single toilet despite lengthy round-trip times. Drivers have told us that driving routes in the early hours and late at night often mean they don't have access to a toilet at all.

Andy Burnham told us he has worked with bus drivers in Manchester on the same issue: "I have worked with bus drivers here in Manchester to put extra toilets in across our network, so those aren't small issues to me. If they're helping people do their job every day, it's a hard job driving a bus around London, I'd be the first to acknowledge that. It's incumbent on us as politicians to support those people to do their important jobs every day."

Earlier this week, Transport for London (TfL) pledged to spend £6 million, this year, on bus driver welfare facilities. This will enable the building of 53 new toilet buildings across the capital over the next three years.

Over the coming weeks, TfL will be installing facilities at six remaining London bus routes.

ITV News London has repeatedly exposed the shocking working conditions of bus drivers and the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan has given his thanks: "I want to thank ITV. I speak as someone who's proud of their dad, who was a bus driver. ITV explaining what bus drivers are going through is incredibly important to raise awareness. It's great ITV give a platform for bus drivers issues, whether that's positive or negative, to be raised."

General secretary of Unite the Union, Sharon Graham, has pledged to lead Unite’s campaign on the issue and raise it with Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

"I will be speaking to Andy Burnham directly about this, what is really clear is the situation in buses has to change now.

"I'm personally now going to be leading this from the union and I'm going to be personally speaking to Andy Burnham to say, look, this has gone beyond anything that is acceptable for workers to come to work in - this is now at crisis point."

We also asked him about his plans for London transport - where he told us there is no live planning application for a third runway at Heathrow Airport.