In a comment piece today I argue that “Good old Boris should buck up or step down”. Until now I haven’t claimed that he’s a “part time mayor”. I have no problem with him writing a newspaper column (or even a book, in his spare moments) and I accept that he can be an MP and mayor at the same time, at least for a while. It’s also fine by me if he devotes some of his time to campaigning for his party near the general election, including outside London. But with 18 months of his mayoral term remaining, his extracurricular activities are getting out of hand and show no sign of being reduced.
Of course, a Johnson resignation is unlikely to happen any time soon - certainly not in time for a mayoral by election to take place on the same day as next year’s general election, which would save some of the £5m-odd a stand-alone City Hall poll would cost. Neither the mayor nor his party are, I think, likely to warm to the idea (you might detect a note of understatement there) and I can’t see Labour, the main opposition party at City Hall, clamouring for it either.
Its freshly-minted timetable for selecting its 2016 candidate doesn’t start until after the 2015 national vote. Perhaps more to the point, most Labour politicians considering running in 2016 are MPs. Being mayor and representing a parliamentary constituency simultaneously for a year is one thing. Campaigning for both jobs at the same time with a view to holding them down long term would be a novel proposition for Diane Abbott, Margaret Hodge, David Lammy or Sadiq Khan to put to electors. That this would not apply to Tessa Jowell, Andrew Adonis or Christian Wolmar doesn’t make the proposition any simpler for Labour to embrace.
The Greens and Liberal Democrats might not mind, though. With no parliamentarians straining at the leash to take Johnson’s place, things would be more straightforward for them. Caroline Pidgeon, Lib Dem group leader on the London Assembly, is thought a strong contender to be her party’s next aspiring mayor. She wrote in The House magazine last month that if Johnson is not able to fulfill his mayoral duties “we may find a by-election is the only answer”.
One drawback of holding a mayoral by election next year is that the scheduled May 2016 one would still have to take place. The usual worries about voter fatigue producing a low turnout apply. But there’s a principle at stake that matters more. What goes for binmen, bankers and baristas should go for Boris Johnson too. If he isn’t going to do his job as mayor properly, he shouldn’t be doing it at all.
Footnote: Another Johnson resignation scenario is possible if David Cameron loses the general election and decides to pack in as Tory leader. Should Johnson succeed him, precedent suggests it wouldn’t happen before this time next year. By then, Johnson could vacate City Hall without a by election being required. His statutory deputy Victoria Borwick would fill in until the next mayoral election in May 2016.
