Uber's arch-rival Lyft has paved the way for a possible move into the UK that could see it directly challenge its US counterpart on London’s streets and pile more misery on the ride-hailing giant.

Lyft, the $7.5bn (£5.5bn) San Francisco start-up, has held a series of high-level talks with ­officials at Transport for London and City Hall in the last year, Freedom of Information records obtained by The Telegraph reveal.

The discussions do not explicitly state the San Francisco company is preparing to gatecrash the UK, but suggest it has taken a keen interest in the market and on transport policy.

The news comes after TfL stripped Uber of its licence in London, a huge blow for the company that will see its cars taken off the roads if an appeal against the ban fails.

Uber, which has 40,000 drivers and 3.5m customers in the capital, was told on Friday it is not “fit and proper” to operate and that its licence will not be renewed when it expires on Saturday.