Boris launches 'serious' mayoral campaign

Boris 'reserves the right to make jokes'

Monday, 03, Sep 2007 12:00

Boris Johnson launched his campaign to be mayor of London today with a vow to be a serious candidate.

The Conservative MP, known as much for his television appearances as his work in Henley upon Thames, said he reserved the right to make jokes but was deadly serious about his campaign.

Setting out his commitments as mayor, Mr Johnson said he would tackle the housing crisis in the capital, as well as problems with transport, petty crime and anti-social behaviour.

He was cheered as he promised to find a 21st century Routemaster and abolish London's notorious "bendy buses" which, Mr Johnson claimed, are loathed by cyclists.

Mr Johnson also echoed Ken Livingstone in calling for progress on the stalled Crossrail scheme, arguing it was vital to transport the number of people needing to cross the capital.

Declaring it was time to "get London moving", the former shadow education minister refused to rule out abolishing the congestion charge scheme, a keystone of Mr Livingstone's agenda.

Mr Johnson promised to be "ruthlessly logical" in his analysis of the charge and said he would not scrap something that was "sensible in its objectives without a better solutions".

But, he argued congestion charging was now failing to reduce overall congestion or carbon emissions and instead risked creating "traffic jams with posher cars".

He also promised to improve conditions on the Tube, asking why it was possible to "design a mobile phone the size of a credit card and yet we cannot produce a system of air conditioning small enough to fit in the Tube."

Mr Johnson gave cautious support for free bus travel for children, adding it was essential buses did not become "glorified getaway cars for the minority of thieves and vandals."

He came out strongly against Mr Livingstone's oil deal with Venezuela, which is used to subsidise free travel, saying instead he would look at introducing bike hire schemes to encourage young people to cycle.

But, Mr Johnson acknowledged any pro-cycling policy requires a crackdown on cycle crime, which he said had become as petty and mundane as graffiti to many Londoners.

He also called for a more general campaign against anti-social behaviour on public transport, arguing the public needed the confidence that the police would back them up.

Mr Johnson's manifesto also included promises to tackle affordable housing, including "more imaginative" shared ownership schemes, improve English language provision and introduce 24-hour Safer Neighbourhood policy.

Meanwhile, one of London's former senior police officers has put himself forward for the Liberal Democrat candidacy.

Brian Paddick, the former Met commander in Lambeth, said he would push for more police officers on the street.

"Londoners are frustrated because they (Police Community Support Officers) simply don't have the powers," he told BBC London.

"They don't have the training to be able to deal with whatever incident they come across.

"What we need is police officers who can deal with the incident straight away."

Ken Livingstone will seek to win a third term as mayor, standing as Labour's official candidate.