London’s shaggy-haired Mayor Boris Johnson has announced this morning that he will try and seek re-election to the House of Commons after his departure in 2008.
Johnson had left his seat in the affluent Henley-upon-Thames in order to take the role as chief executive of London – a job which he has flourished in, gaining international credibility as the London Olympics stunned the globe.
But now the Mayor, better known simply as Boris, is set to return to Parliament with a view to taking over the Conservative Party should David Cameron fail to win a majority at the next election in 2015.
Speaking to a central London audience this morning, Johnson is quoted as having said:
“I have not got any particular seat lined up, but I do think… in all probability I will try to find somewhere to stand in 2015”.
The news will spark speculation over which seat Johnson is aiming for.
In 2012 the Conservative Party leadership was the subject of rumours following a ‘stalking horse’ plot in which it is alleged that a Member of Parliament was ‘keeping a seat warm’ for the London Mayor.
Bob Stewart MP said he that was approached by Conservative Party colleagues with a proposal to hold his seat for Johnson, who at the time may have been mounting a leadership coup. Stewart is reported to have sai that he told them to “get lost” and rejected the idea as “silly”.
A recent poll of Conservative Party members showed Home Secretary Theresa May creeping into the lead as the preferred post-Cameron candidate. Boris Johnson was in second place.
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