A Labour politician has accused the London Mayor of being “inept”.

Councillor Navin Shah, London Assembly member for Brent and Harrow, wants Boris Johnson to block high rise buildings planned for Harrow town centre.

But he attacked his Tory rival after it emerged Mr Johnson was not aware of proposals for a 19 storey tower due to be built on the former post office site, in College Road.

Cllr Shah said he was shocked the mayor did not remember having looked at the plan once before.

He said: “In these applications, the Mayor made no objection on height grounds on two proposals both of which were over ten storeys.

“In fact the Dandara site is now so high it scrapes into British airspace and will need approval from the Civil Aviation Authority. To suggest he knows of no high-rise plans in Harrow is beyond alarming, it’s inept.”

Mr Johnson accepted there had been “confusion” over the issue and said he would look at it again.

He said: “I'm determined not to go around imposing on outer London boroughs tall buildings that they don't want.”

He added: “It's important not to be completely dogmatic about this and say all tall buildings are intrinsically evil. Certainly I think that too often they can be blocks on the landscape.”