- Company stripped of London licence last week after row over criminal checks
- The US firm is now set to appoint a UK chairman, a new position in the company
- Appointment of non-executive role could boost its battle to win back licence
Crisis-hit taxi app Uber has brought in a headhunter to find it a UK chairman.
The US firm is facing a huge legal battle over its right to continue working in London after it was stripped of its licence by the city’s transport authority.
Today it announced it was launching a new, non-executive position in the company, UK chairman, which it hopes will bolster its case to win back its licence in the capital.
Uber is looking to appoint a UK chairman as it attempts to get back its London licence
It comes after Transport for London announced last Friday that the app was ‘not fit and proper’ to hold a taxi licence, due to a failure to report serious crimes by drivers to police and alleged problems with how Uber obtains background checks
The decision to ban Uber’s London license is backed by nearly half of London voters, a poll revealed last night.
Out of those who took part, 43 percent believed TfL were correct to take the license away, 37 per cent said they were unsure and 20 per cent disagreed with the decision, a YouGov poll for The Times revealed.
Among those who use the Uber app, 49 per cent said it was wrong to take it away and 31 said it was the correct outcome.
Drivers of traditional London taxis were celebrating on Friday after Transport for London stripped Uber of its licence to operate in the city
Over half thought Uber would continue to operate in London, while a fifth of people believed it would be closed down.
But it also discovered that eleven per cent of the taxi company’s customers had felt unsafe during a journey, while 85 per cent did not.
On September 22-24, YouGov interviewed 1,716 adults about the Mayor’s decision to remove the licence.