James Ford is a columnist for City AM and was an adviser to former Mayor of London Boris Johnson on transport policy
Festus Akinbusoye wants the Conservative nomination to run for Mayor of London. Now, this is unlikely to surprise anyone who has even a passing interest in London politics. He has been popping up in twitter feeds and furiously scribbling comment pieces for months. He has set-up a personal website. He even got himself elected to Westminster City Council in May. If one wants to float the idea of running for Mayor of London without actually declaring, that is how the game is played. So far, so good.
But now Festus has dispensed with the pretext entirely. He has commissioned some polling – and shared it with the Evening Standard – that suggests that a former minister in the last Conservative government should not seek to become Mayor of London in 2028. This is a blatant drive-by on James Cleverly.
In my capacity as a seasoned observer of Conservative politics in the capital, I’d like to offer Festus some unsolicited advice: this is how NOT to run for Mayor of London as a Conservative.
In choosing this approach, Festus has made no fewer than four serious errors. Firstly, it does not look good that the opening salvo of Festus’s mayoral campaign is aimed at a fellow Conservative. Moreover, it is a pre-emptive strike on a candidate that hasn’t even decided to enter the race yet. This is likely to alienate precisely those party members in the capital that he will need to campaign for him. Members do not appreciate blue-on-blue attacks. They want to hear their potential mayoral candidates conduct a lively discussion about how they can improve the capital. And, just as importantly, once a candidate has been selected, they would expect all the unsuccessful candidates to support the nominee and do everything they can to deliver a Conservative victory. That is going to be much harder if any of the hopefuls have been ripping chunks out of each other during the primary process. By choosing to play the man and not the ball, Festus has actually scored a rather spectacular own goal.
Secondly, Festus has revealed his crippling insecurity. A strong, self-assured candidate would lead with their vision for the capital, float an ambitious policy agenda, or talk about how their experience qualifies them for the role. This move, on the other hand, just shows that Festus is scared of Cleverly’s potential candidature…and therefore that Cleverly is the undoubted front-runner even before he has entered the race.
Thirdly, this is such a missed opportunity. Festus could have commissioned some polling that attacked the serving Mayor instead. There is, after all, an abundance of riches when it comes to potential polling subjects that will show Sadiq Khan in a bad light: crime, housing, transport, and the night-time economy. Any – or all – would have been a better use of his donors’ money than this. The Tory road to City Hall runs through Sadiq Khan and Labour, and this polling has created a weapon that Reform UK and others can use against us.
Festus’s fourth error is his most egregious in my view: this is really cack-handed politicking. Running to be mayor is a serious business. It requires serious candidates willing to invest serious time and serious effort. This is amateur hour. Maybe it is just me, but if I’m going to vote for a politician, I expect them to be good at politics. I demand a certain political dexterity; a deftness of touch. I want to be confident that they have the cunning of Machiavelli, not that they have a spectacular proficiency in shooting themselves in the foot. I am not angry with Festus, but I am bitterly disappointed.
If Festus is serious about trying for the Conservative nomination, he needs to raise his game. As first moves go, this is bush league stuff. London Conservatives want a mayoral candidate that they can rally behind. They don’t want one who is going trample on his fellow Conservatives to get to City Hall.