Tomorrow's New Statesman claims that relations between the Conservative leadership and Boris Johnson have "reached breaking point".
The magazine cites three major policy areas which David Cameron and the high command are refusing to support the mayor on. They are:
• Crossrail, the £16bn scheme linking Essex, Canary Wharf and Heathrow, which the government is backing but the Statesman says Cameron will not. "Tory opposition to this will infuriate City financiers, who see it as crucial to London's future," says the Statesman's political correspondent, James Macintyre.
• Johnson's plan for an airport in the Thames estuary. Tory HQ hasn't made its position clear on this, but remains opposed to a third runway at Heathrow. Incidentally, the shadow transport secretary, Theresa Villiers, was forced to deny the suggestion made by Conservative MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown in a letter to a constituent that the third runway issue would be "revisited" by the Tories after the election.
• The mayor's wish for enhanced powers.
Johnson has been having a rum old time of late, but remains a magnetic, recognisable Conservative figure. "David Cameron is desperate for Johnson to stand for re-election as mayor in 2012, so his fellow Old Etonian does not return to the Commons to pursue the Conservative party leadership that he still privately craves," says the Staggers.
