UK Lawmaker Confronts Alleged Fare-Dodgers

By day, he is Robert Jenrick, a senior Conservative Party lawmaker in the UK. Also by day, he is Robert Jenrick, subway vigilante. In a video posted on X, Jenrick, the opposition party's shadow justice secretary, confronted fare-dodgers at a London Underground station. In the footage, Jenrick questions several men forcing their way through ticket barriers and highlights what he described as a lack of enforcement, pointing to relaxed officers nearby, the Telegraph reports. "Do you want to go back and pay like everybody else?" Jenrick, a former party leadership candidate, asked one man at Stratford station in east London.

One man told Jenrick to "f--- off." Jenrick replied, "You can say f--- off as much as you want." At another point, he asks the same man, "You what, you're carrying a knife, did you say?" He brought another man to a group of enforcement officers. Jenrick told the BBC he made the video because he is "sick to death of people fare dodging" and authorities "not stepping up and not enforcing the rules." Asked whether he had sought permission from Transport for London to film at the station, he said, "They should be going after people breaking the law, not the rules." TfL staff have been advised not to intervene with fare dodgers if they feel it could put their safety at risk, the Telegraph reports.

The network says nearly half of violence and aggression incidents toward frontline staff stem from fare disputes. Specialized Transport Support and Enforcement officers, who are trained to physically intervene, are intended to handle more serious fare evasion and rule-breaking cases. The Transport Salaried Staffs' Association union said it has been calling for properly trained personnel to "deal with fare evasion in a way that is effective, lawful, and safe," the BBC reports. "Fare evasion is a serious issue but it must be tackled with professional trained enforcement, not MPs trying to score points or social media clout on their daily commute," the union said. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)