James Cleverly has vowed to run a “classically Conservative” campaign to become the mayor of London, insisting his victory in the capital would be a stepping stone for Kemi Badenoch to become prime minister. The senior Tory denied he had resigned from the shadow cabinet to run for mayor after a shift to the right under Badenoch’s leadership. However, in a series of interviews on Sunday he avoided speaking about culture wars issues, which have been a focus for the Conservative leader.
She drew criticism for claiming there was a “problem with crime” in the black community and was forced to apologise for liking a tweet in 2020 that had a picture of Enoch Powell captioned: “It’s never too late to get London back.” Hall lost to Labour’s Sadiq Khan in 2024, who won with 43.8% of the vote. Cleverly, who lost his attempt to lead the Conservatives to Badenoch, is considered a more moderate voice in a party that has moved to the right as support for Nigel Farage’s rightwing Reform UK has grown. Giles Dilnot, the editor of Conservative Home, who has worked closely with Cleverly in the past, denied a rift.
He said he thought it unlikely that the MP for Braintree was using his attempt to become mayor as a route to become the next Conservative leader. Asked if Cleverly was likely to seek to put distance between himself and the Tory leader to attract more centre-left voters in the capital, he pointed to the politician’s 2024 speech during the Conservative leadership contest in which he called for his party to be “more normal”. A YouGov survey this month found that 56% of people living in the capital thought he should step down and allow a different Labour candidate to stand.
A recent poll for the Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London, found Khan would win a fourth term if he stood despite a surge in support for the Greens. The Savanta survey put Labour on 33%, Reform on 20%, the Conservatives on 18%, the Greens on 14% and the Liberal Democrats on 10%. If Khan steps out of the running, Dawn Butler, the Labour MP for Brent East, is expected to stand, while others mooted potential candidates in the Labour ranks including Rosena Allin-Khan and David Lammy, the former justice secretary.
Cleverly told LBC he thought Khan had “really lost passion for the job”, adding that as a Londoner he wanted to stand against “very anti-London” Andy Burnham.
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