Chávez deal to aid low-income Londoners | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gla/story/0,,2153144,00.html

Mr Livingstone, London's mayor, said London and Venezuela had exchanged "those things in which they are rich to the mutual benefit of both".

"This will make it cheaper and easier for people to go about their lives and get the most out of London," he said. "The agreement which makes this possible will also benefit the people of Venezuela, by providing expertise in areas of city management in which London is a world leader."

Angie Bray, the Conservative leader in the London assembly, said Mr Livingstone should rather have appealed to the Treasury if he needed financial support. "The spectacle of our mayor ... going cap in hand to a dictator ... is morally indefensible," she added.