Justine Greening has been tipped as the next Tory candidate for mayor of London, after one of her rumoured rivals said he would not run and endorsed the former education secretary.
Greening, the MP for Putney, has not yet announced a bid to take on Labour’s Sadiq Khan for City Hall’s top job in 2020.
However, her chances were boosted on Friday when former culture minister Ed Vaizey told the Huffington Post he had ruled himself out and was backing Greening. “I was never really planning to run,” he told the website.
The Conservatives are due to begin the process of selecting their candidate in June, giving them a two-year campaign to unseat Khan, who is still likely to be the favourite in 2020.
The timetable for the selection, according to ConservativeHome, will mean that nominations open this month, with a summer campaign culminating in a final vote in September.
The Conservatives are understood to feel that Zac Goldsmith, who took on Khan in the 2016 election, wasn’t given enough time to establish his campaign, having only been selected in September before the vote in May. His campaign was also dogged by allegations of dog-whistle xenophobic tactics against Khan.
Since leaving the cabinet in January, Greening, who was a vocal remain campaigner, has been outspoken about the need for the Tories to broaden their appeal to younger, socially liberal voters. Her majority was slashed at the last general election, from more than 10,000 to just 1,554.
Labour are polling ahead in London, although the Conservatives have been buoyed by better than expected local election results, in which Labour failed to take target councils including Barnet and Wandsworth.
Other candidates who have been tipped to run for Londonmayor include MEP Syed Kamall, who was defeated by Goldsmith to be the Tory candidate in 2016.
