Helene Mulholland:
Boris Johnson's London mayoralty looks set to be hit by a number of departures over the coming months as advisers and Tory London assembly members try for seats at Westminster.
The Conservative mayor and former MP for Henley recently warned that he would mount a "Stalingrad-like resistance" against any attempts by the Tory high command to poach members of his top team at City Hall ahead of the next general election. But Dan Ritterband, Johnson's director of marketing, told the Guardian: "I'm not ruling anything out at this stage." He is not the only one to be hedging his bets.
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