Boris Johnson was hardly going to let the Olympics slip past him unexploited. As I noted in my column last week, the opportunity to use the games as a festival of self-promotion constitutes the Mayor of London’s special reward for being the most electable Tory around. It is hard to imagine David Cameron basking in chants of “Dave! Dave! Dave!” at a vast Hyde Park rally. There is something about Johnson that zoinks – so to speak – where other Conservatives don’t.
Boris’s Olympian hogging of the limelight has, I gather, been a source of some irritation to other politicians who are rarely sated with publicity. Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has been raising hackles on Team Boris with his attempts to get in on the act. Olympics = sport = Jeremy, says the DCMS; London = Boris so back off, comes the City Hall rejoinder.
Meanwhile, provoking chatter about Boris’s chances of succeeding Cameron was a poll for ConservativeHome naming him the activists’ favourite. I stand by my column analysis that this is more a proxy expression of dismay and disappointment with the current leader than serious contemplation of Boris as Prime Minister. There are many obstacles to Johnson actually becoming leader (some of which I explore here; Steve Richards also picks up the theme in his Independent column today).
Aside from the technical impediments – such as Boris not actually being an MP – there is the much more serious question of irresponsibility and pathological unseriousness. As one former Boris staffer said to me recently in a tone of weary incredulity aiming to kill off the idea of Prime Minister Johnson: “Just imagine him for a second in charge of defence.”
Labour are certainly not taking the Johnson threat too seriously. The view at the top of the party is that Boris has reached his natural political altitude. One senior shadow cabinet minister told me at the time of the London mayoral election that Boris’s success was an expression of the executive weakness of the post he was applying for. Voters could be relaxed about hiring a semi-comic figurehead because they fully understood that doing so had few real consequences. That would not be true in a general election where a crucial element in deciding how people vote (this shadow cabinet minister said) is “the fear factor” – what happens if this mildly ridiculous person actually wins?
Meanwhile, Boris is clearly determined to raise his candidacy beyond the novelty level. That aspiration is hardly helped by his hope, expressed to aides (as I revealed last week), of overseeing the city on a part time basis after the Olympics. But presumably he will use his free time to burnish his credentials as a serious national figure – and even an international one – capable of holding more august office. One way City Hall folk expect Boris to liven up his job once the Olympic excitement has worn off is more foreign travel. It was felt in the first term that too much gallivanting around the globe as an “ambassador for London” would not have been received very well. One too many junkets and it might have looked as if Boris was neglecting his manor. But in the wake of the games, and the higher profile that has afforded the mayor, Boris now apparently feels liberated to go out and about drumming up investment from foreign companies and businesses. The idea is that the Magnetic Mayor’s Roadshow will attract capital to the capital. He can then turn to the nation with a pitch along the lines: “Behold! London growing and replete with jobs. Witness how it has outperformed the rest of the country.”
Another pursuit to pass the time productively will be picking fights with the Chancellor over funding for the capital. London as a region is a net contributor to the Exchequer and Boris intends to haggle noisily to secure, as he sees it, a bigger share of his constituents’ cash. That also creates ample opportunities for the sport described by one source as “jabbing George in the ribs”. It is only once the Olympics are gone that the games really begin.
Content from our partners
Related
