Lyft is Uber’s biggest competitor and may be aiming to set up in London

Uber was repeatedly given a clean bill of health by transport bosses before the sudden decision to ban it from London, The Times has learnt.

Inspections carried out by Transport for London between 2013 and the middle of this year failed to find any major fault with the company, it emerged, leading to claims that the cancellation of its licence smacked of “political opportunism”.

Data released under the Freedom of Information Act showed that TfL conducted ten inspections at Uber’s London headquarters and ruled that it “satisfied regulatory requirements”.

In April Uber also successfully passed its annual compliance audit, which is thought to have involved 20 officials from TfL’s licensing department reviewing thousands of documents over two days.

Uber, which is used by 3.5 million