"We need to treat London seriously" - the words of a leading Conservative MP as his party considers its next candidate to be mayor of the capital. The party has just closed applications for the role and there are four runners who have openly declared. In 26 years, the Tories have only had one mayor in the capital, Boris Johnson, who won two elections and served from 2008 to 2016.
The party has lost three elections since then to Sadiq Khan, now Lord Khan of Tooting. Gareth Bacon MP, shadow minister for London, told a meeting at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham this week that his party had treated the mayoralty like a "paper candidacy" in the past two elections - meaning that they hadn't taken it seriously enough. Bacon said that the party had "cut Susan Hall adrift", a reference to their candidate in the last mayoral election in 2024, when Lord Khan won that historic third term as mayor.
Bacon went on to describe Lord Khan as "toxic and divisive". The election for mayor of London will be held in May 2028. That is more than 18 months away, but the race is well underway.
Reform UK selected their candidate, Leila Cunningham, in January. Sarah Olney, MP for Richmond Park, and Rob Blackie, who ran in 2024, are both candidates for the Lib Dem nomination. This time round, with speculation about whether the current mayor will stand for a fourth term, the Conservatives sniff a chance.
On the back of local elections in May 2026 when the party won back traditional strongholds like Westminster and Wandsworth from Labour, they feel the mood may be changing. However, winning the mayoralty may be too big a task. Much of it will depend on who they choose as their candidate.
Festus Akinbusoye is a relative newcomer to London politics, though not to the city. He emigrated from Nigeria with his parents and sister at age 13 in 1991 and lived in Canning Town in east London. Akinbusoye was the Bedfordshire police and crime commissioner from 2021 to 2024 and was elected to Westminster City Council in May.
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