The ballot for London mayor will also feature a selection of ambitious independents, political extremists, and YouTube influencers who see the \u00a310,000 cost of getting on the ballot as an affordable way of creating high-profile content<\/a>.<\/p>\n Still, the small parties face a challenge. Reform\u2019s poor electoral performance in London compared to the rest of the country, the recent collapse in the Greens\u2019 poll ratings, and the return to the supplementary vote electoral system all mean that the most likely outcome remains a run-off between a Labour<\/strong> candidate and a Conservative<\/strong> candidate. The last time a vote was held using this electoral system was 2021, when Sadiq Khan beat the Conservatives\u2019 Shaun Bailey by a relatively narrow 55% to 45% in the second round.<\/p>\n This time, the Labour campaign is stuck in a Sadiq Khan-induced limbo<\/a> due to the mayor\u2019s reluctance to show his hand on whether he\u2019ll run for a fourth term. That\u2019s left the likes of Labour MPs Dawn Butler and Rosena Allin-Khan twiddling their thumbs, unsure if they\u2019re allowed to publicly campaign for the Labour mayoral candidate job they obviously think is available. (Khan, who has already accepted a seat in the House of Lords, told the Telegraph<\/a> in August that he\u2019ll finally announce whether he\u2019ll stand again \u201cnext year\u201d.)<\/p>\n This has enabled the Conservatives to get on with selecting their candidate and trying to fill the void. James Cleverly, the former home and foreign secretary, is now the frontrunner after confirming last weekend that he\u2019d quit the shadow cabinet to run in the party\u2019s internal selection process. Since 2015 he\u2019s been the MP for Braintree, over the border in Essex, although he has remained living at his main home in Blackheath, south east London. It\u2019s likely he\u2019d have been Conservative leader if his supporters hadn\u2019t tried to be too clever by half<\/a>.<\/p>\n Any route to power in London will require the Conservatives to dominate the capital\u2019s outer suburbs, pile up the votes in ultra-wealthy inner London areas such as Kensington and Westminster, and nail down the second preferences of Reform backers. But victory would probably also require convincing 100,000 or so relatively affluent inner Londoners who consider themselves social liberals and voted for Khan in the last few mayoral elections to switch sides and try something different. The theory goes that if you can find a Conservative candidate who can win back London\u2019s padel-playing middle classes who used to back Boris Johnson but were put off by culture war topics then the Tories might stand a chance.<\/p>\n The mayoral election is in 2028, giving Londoners plenty of time to make up their minds over who they want to run the city. In the run-up to then, we\u2019ll be bringing you interviews with the people hoping to be elected to the capital\u2019s top job.<\/strong><\/p>\n For today\u2019s edition, we had an introductory chat with James Cleverly, in which he set out his initial pitch to London Centric readers in response to your questions. We\u2019ll be scrutinising his campaign and digging into his policies as and when he has any to announce.<\/strong><\/p>\n Leave a comment<\/a><\/p>\n Jim Waterson: The media environment has changed a fair bit since you were in City Hall. Have you been taking tips from [New York mayor Zohran] Mamdani with your TikTok approach \u2014 cycling round the markets of east London<\/a> rather than doing formal speeches?<\/strong><\/p>\n James Cleverly:<\/strong> The thing with the mayoralty is that, unlike almost any other elected position in the British system, it\u2019s much more about the individual. Obviously I\u2019m a Conservative and I\u2019m proud to be a Conservative, but people in a mayoral election don\u2019t tend to be quite so locked into a party political affiliation.<\/p>\n I want people to know me \u2014 not just the veneer, or the initial impression you get when you do a media round. There needs to be a more intimate understanding of the person who has put themselves forward, and social media, short-form video in particular, is a much better way of getting that across. Traditional long-form interviews have a really important role, but so does that regular drumbeat of a little bit behind the scenes. Be yourself. If people like that, great. If they don\u2019t like it, better they find out before the election rather than afterwards.<\/p>\n JW: So what\u2019s the pitch to Londoners? Why you rather than anyone else?<\/strong><\/p>\n JC:<\/strong> I\u2019m a Londoner. Born in Lewisham Hospital, went to school in Lewisham and Greenwich, went to university over in Ealing. My kids were born in Lewisham Hospital. I\u2019ve lived and worked in London my whole life \u2014 and even as the Braintree MP I still spent most of my working life here in London. I\u2019m a Londoner and I\u2019m passionate about the city.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been foreign secretary. I had the chance to travel the world on behalf of the UK, selling the UK to an international audience. London is an incredibly important part of that international sales pitch, and it really reminded me just how significant London is to the UK as a whole.<\/p>\n The reason I\u2019m putting myself forward is that I want London absolutely firing on all cylinders and at the top table, domestically and internationally. London needs a real champion, and it feels as if for the last three, four, perhaps even five years Sadiq Khan has been doing almost the bare minimum. There isn\u2019t really the passion. I think his game plan was to do what Boris did and use City Hall as a stepping stone to get into No 10, and when that increasingly became an impossibility for him, I feel he lost the energy for the job. London needs a high-energy, high-ambition champion to promote it, defend it and represent it, and I want to be that person.<\/p>\n JW: But what would you actually do? What would you focus on first?<\/strong><\/p>\n JC:<\/strong> What I\u2019m not going to do is get ahead of myself. I haven\u2019t secured the nomination yet, there are 18 months to the election, and I\u2019ll set out more detailed policy proposals closer to it. But the broad thrust, the priorities, are clear.<\/p>\n London is becoming too expensive for many, many people, and when a city prices people out you have problems. London must always be an aspirational city, but it\u2019s also got to be an affordable city, and it\u2019s becoming increasingly unaffordable, particularly for people trying to get on the housing ladder. I\u2019m not talking about just people really struggling for money \u2014 I\u2019m talking about people with good jobs who are being priced out of even very modest homes in London. That has got to be sorted. And Khan\u2019s failure to get London building homes is shocking.<\/p>\n People also need to feel confident and safe and secure going about their lives in the city. There is too much crime \u2014 we\u2019re seeing shoplifting, we\u2019re seeing phone theft. That\u2019s stuff that really erodes people\u2019s confidence in the city, both for people who live and work here and for visitors from other parts of the UK and other parts of the world. We\u2019ve got to get a grip of that.<\/p>\n And we\u2019ve got to create that desire for London to be the place people want to go. When people are thinking where to start a business, the answer should be London. When people think internationally, where should we go on holiday, where should we visit \u2014 the answer should be London. Where should we bring up a family, where\u2019s the best place for opportunity \u2014 the answer should be London. The answer to all those positive questions should always be London. That\u2019s how we make sure we retain the hard work, the talent, the ambitious people. That\u2019s got to be the foundation stone for London.<\/p>\n JW: People picked up on the line you put out in your first media round<\/a> about ending the \u2018war on motorists\u2019. A lot of readers got in touch saying: \u201cI\u2019m not against voting for a Conservative, but does this mean ripping out bike lanes and undoing ULEZ, which has meant children\u2019s lungs are getting bigger?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n JC:<\/strong> No \u2014 and this is where I want to make sure people look at what I actually say, rather than running ahead or looking at the things put out by people who are not trying to have a good-faith debate about this. The fact is that in many parts of London, particularly outer London, people do need their cars. In central London the public transport system is very good, but in many parts of outer London people really rely on their cars.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re really, really wealthy, the additional cost of driving might be an inconvenience, but it\u2019s not a problem. For people trying to run small businesses, for people whose household finances are really, really tight, this constant ratchet effect is really problematic \u2014 particularly now, as cars are getting cleaner.<\/p>\n Wanting to make London clean and green and breathable is really important. And I\u2019m a cyclist, I\u2019m a regular cyclist, I love cycling, and I\u2019m really proud of the fact that London is now, in large part thanks to Boris, a cycling city. But those who need to drive shouldn\u2019t be penalised because they need to drive. I\u2019m keeping a very close eye on this potential ratchet effect, because I do fear \u2014 and I said this in those early interviews \u2014 that particularly with Andy Burnham as prime minister, London is just being seen as a cash cow. It\u2019s being seen as somewhere you can squeeze money out of, and a lot of Londoners can\u2019t afford to be squeezed any harder. That\u2019s why I said I\u2019m going to look at the costs imposed by City Hall on Londoners.<\/p>\n JW: If you become mayor you\u2019ll be the first with proper powers to raise money and spend it how you want. Would you, for instance, look at tax cuts for Londoners with young families who are on nominally high salaries but really struggling to get that first step on the housing ladder? Ben Houchen has proposed that in Middlesbrough<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n JC:<\/strong> The problem with the Labour Party \u2014 and we\u2019ve seen this in London, and we\u2019re seeing it nationally over the last couple of years \u2014 is that their only answer seems to be putting up taxes. The answer to every problem is more taxes.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s talk about employing young people. There are a lot of young people in London. London is a young city, an entrepreneurial city, and these young people want to get into work. We saw Andy Burnham talking about spending money on all these work experience schemes, while simultaneously the Treasury massively increased the cost of actually employing young people. They\u2019re taxing businesses into the ground and losing real jobs, while trying to subsidise these work experience, part-time, temporary type jobs. It\u2019s completely back to front.<\/p>\n I want to look at ways of Londoners keeping more of the money they earn, so they can get on the housing ladder, so they can enjoy a good life, so they can have choice and freedom in their decisions. That\u2019s something which fits with the vibe of London. Londoners are often self-reliant, entrepreneurial. But if the system, if the government, keeps holding them back, they\u2019re missing out on their full potential, and I want to look at reversing that relationship.<\/p>\n JW: On the perception of London \u2014 that online idea of a city that has fallen, that\u2019s too dangerous to walk the streets. Kemi Badenoch said last summer that she didn\u2019t always feel safe on the streets of London<\/a> any more. Do you feel safe on the streets of London? Has the online narrative got completely out of step with reality?<\/strong><\/p>\n JC:<\/strong> Look, I\u2019m 6ft 2in, a former rugby-playing soldier, so I\u2019m not necessarily the right person to gauge that. But I had this when I was home secretary, and I very much focused on tackling violence against women and girls: when women tell you they don\u2019t feel safe, don\u2019t just ignore it. The fear of crime is corrosive, and it\u2019s damaging, and it limits people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n Now, there are people who, either naively or foolishly, amplify negative stories about crime in London. That is absolutely the case. There are also bad-faith actors, including foreign states, who are trying to damage our reputation by amplifying these negative stories. But just bombarding people with statistics is not going to alleviate the fear. We have to see people dealing with fare dodgers. We have to see people dealing with phone theft. We have to see the police dealing with shoplifting. We have to make sure there\u2019s a visible presence in the night-time economy, so that people do feel safe and can see that people are keeping an eye on them and looking after them. These things really matter. Saying \u201cit\u2019s all fake news\u201d and putting out bar charts is not going to lift the cloud of fear from people in London. That\u2019s going to take work, it\u2019s going to take passion. And sadly, it\u2019s a passion I\u2019m not seeing from the mayor at the moment, and it\u2019s certainly a passion I\u2019ll bring to the job.<\/p>\n JW: Is there one thing you\u2019d say Sadiq Khan has got right? What\u2019s improved under him? <\/strong><\/p>\n JC:<\/strong> He\u2019s done an adequate job. I know it\u2019s very tempting to denounce everything he\u2019s done and everything he\u2019s said, but when I talk to people \u2014 and I have done for years, not just since announcing \u2014 the big thing that comes across more than anything else is disappointment. He came in with big fanfare and high expectations, and really, when people look back at his time as mayor, it\u2019s a bit meh.<\/p>\n Cycling has improved, but that was basically driven by the cycling revolution that Boris brought in. Air quality has improved, but remember, things like the low emission zone were initiated under a Conservative mayor. The delivery of the Elizabeth line, back when it was called Crossrail, happened under us. The delivery of the Olympic Park. He\u2019s done alright, kind of \u2014 but the mayor of London needs to be more than that. He needs to be someone really driving change. What are the big investments he\u2019s secured? What are the big projects? He\u2019s been in charge while police numbers are trending in the wrong direction, street crime is getting worse, investment in London is falling and house building has completely collapsed. Last year there were fewer than 5,000 housing starts in London, when it should be something more like 88,000. He missed his targets, reduced his targets, missed his reduced targets. And people are voting with their feet: London is seeing a decline in population for the first time in half a century.<\/p>\n The bottom line is that you need someone to do better than just muddle along being maybe about average. You need someone who really wants this city to excel, and is willing to do something about it. And unfortunately Sadiq Khan \u2014 and I know him, and I\u2019ve always got on pretty well with him \u2014 has just been really disappointing.<\/p>\n JW: You backed Brexit. Do you think Brexit has worked out well for London?<\/strong><\/p>\n JC:<\/strong> I\u2019m going to put forward a plan for the future. The vote happened, Brexit has happened. What I\u2019m not going to do is re-litigate this. It\u2019s still a very polarising issue, and there are people who are very passionate about the positions they held a decade ago. I think if we keep looking backwards to pick rows rather than forwards to seek opportunities, we\u2019re doing it wrong. So I\u2019m not going to try to change minds on this issue.<\/p>\n What I\u2019m going to do is make sure that the UK\u2019s ability to strike international trade deals benefits London, and that the UK\u2019s ability to be more flexible and adaptable with technology, for example, benefits London. As London has had for centuries, I want to keep a really strong relationship with our European neighbours. But London has also been very much more widely internationally connected, and I want to make sure I support that as well. I\u2019m going to focus on the future and on opportunities, rather than on the past.<\/p>\n JW: I was reading your pitch to Londoners on ConservativeHome<\/a>. Something felt a little off about it, so I put it into Pangram, the AI detector, and it said it was 83%, with high certainty, written by AI. Are you using AI to write your pitch to Londoners?<\/strong><\/p>\n JC:<\/strong> No. I wrote that, and of course all of us use technology. I\u2019m old enough to remember when I was doing maths exams at school, and I was about the first generation who were told you\u2019re allowed to use pocket calculators now. You\u2019ve been a journalist \u2014 you use spell check and that kind of stuff, I\u2019m quite sure. We all use technologies to tidy stuff up.<\/p>\n I wrote that ConservativeHome article using things I\u2019ve said, text of speeches I\u2019ve given, other articles I\u2019ve written, to bring it together. But that article is what I believe. That article is why I feel I\u2019m the right person to be mayor of London: because of the passion I\u2019ve got for the city, because of the experience I\u2019ve got in City Hall and in government, because my life has been in this city, and I\u2019ve seen its reputation domestically and internationally suffer, because we\u2019ve got a mayor who just isn\u2019t as passionate about the job as he should be. That article absolutely reflects my views.<\/p>\n JW: So it\u2019s not going to be \u2018mayor by ChatGPT\u2019 then?<\/strong><\/p>\n JC:<\/strong> Everybody uses technology. We\u2019re doing this interview on mobile phones. Everyone uses technology, and we use technology to edit and tidy up and that kind of stuff. I do not have, as government ministers have, thousands of civil servants who can draft, edit and redraft. We run a tight ship here within the team. So of course we use technologies \u2014 spell check, fact checking, using stuff. But the things I said are absolutely the things I believe.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/e556e58a-6c2b-4e5e-9a13-6a504e0f45df_1800.jpeg\")
<\/a>The voting system used in 2021, where Londoners have the option to cast a supplementary second vote, has been reintroduced by the Labour government in the belief it benefits their party.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/2f18a508-1ea3-4deb-8b97-6ce3b1bed6af_1800.jpeg\")
<\/a>London\u2019s one experiment with the first past the post system enabled Labour to squeeze the Green vote.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/05984135-c93e-496f-bdfd-7c0b7b80b1a7_6000.jpeg\" "\\"\\"")
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<\/a>Cleverly with party leader Kemi Badenoch<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/62a32219-937b-4725-8d33-17f4d73eefa3_4000.jpeg\")
<\/a>Sadiq Khan in 2015 when he was selected as Labour\u2019s mayoral candidate.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/7979d614-be3d-4766-83a6-a7c5aa995c7e_742x.png\")
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/1c354f41-afad-478d-bc56-bb2f11693582_5456.jpeg\")
<\/a>Cleverly with his family after receiving a knighthood.<\/p>\n