Alex Challoner is a former prospective London mayoral candidate and the current Director of London Vision Network. James Ford was an adviser on transport and technology policy to former Mayor of London Boris Johnson and is now a columnist for City AM.
Any regular reader of Conservative Home that has read the past contributions of this article’s authors (in these august pages and elsewhere) will be well aware that we are restless, relentless advocates for change in London. We have long urged the party to take London more seriously as a political battleground and proposed urgent reforms needed to make the Conservative Party in London more professional, more credible, and generally more electorally competitive.
These proposed reforms have included the more timely selection of a mayoral candidate, that the party leadership and organisation needs to see the importance of the capital to the party’s national recovery, that party structures in the capital are ripe for an overhaul, and of the need to attract heavyweight political contenders as potential candidates. Given that London’s political landscape is becoming ever more crowded and unpredictable, that it is becoming increasingly obvious that the serving Mayor has overstayed his welcome, and that the Starmer Government seems to have it in for London, our clarion calls for change are only going to become more frequent – and more urgent – in 2026. To that end, our latest call to action is that London needs its own dedicated Conservative think tank.
This article does not intend to cast any shade on the sterling work that the brilliant minds of Tufton Street and elsewhere already do. Policy Exchange’s recent work revealing the harrowing true extent of knife crime in the capital, for example, proves that the existing Conservative-inclined think tanks can and do make an effective impact upon the capital’s policy discourse. But, with the process of developing policies for the next general election manifesto already underway in earnest, it is clear that their considerable intellectual firepower is likely to be directed to finding national solutions to UK-wide problems. It is important that crafting a compelling policy offer for London does not fall through the cracks or become a mere afterthought. A think tank dedicated to identifying market-orientated, centre-right solutions to the capital’s myriad policy challenges and complex issues is not just urgently needed but, arguably, long overdue.
Without a commitment to producing robust, well-researched policies that capture Londoners’ imaginations there is arguably little point in fielding a strong mayoral candidate or improving the effectiveness of the party’s campaigning. London has seemingly been engulfed by a rising tide of failure and declinism under Sadiq Khan’s decade of misrule. To win back control of City Hall, Conservatives need to offer some serious hope of reprieve for the capital’s citizenry.
An early priority for any effective Tory think tank for London will be to quantify the scale of Sadiq Khan’s failings and provide the clear evidence that proves just where – and how badly – the capital is heading in the wrong direction on the issues that matter most to Londoners. This will boost the party’s ability to hold the Mayor to account ahead of the 2028 election, supporting the great work that our Assembly Members and Councillors are doing every day. . At present, whoever occupies City Hall enjoys an enormous incumbency advantage over the dissident voices of opposition. Conservatives – indeed all parties other than Labour – are massively outgunned by the Mayor’s vast bureaucracy of taxpayer-funded, lanyard-wearing apologists and propagandists. At the end of March 2025 there were no fewer than 244 staff in the GLA’s Strategy & Communications directorate alone – accounting for 16 per cent of all staff at City Hall. (That is nearly one employee in every six tasked with communications). That directorate’s headcount has grown from 187 employees at the end of March 2022 alone – an increase of around 30 per cent in just three years. And these numbers account for the GLA alone – they do not include the spinners employed at other mayoral agencies like Transport for London, London & Partners, ReLondon and MOPAC. (Increasing the Conservatives’ research capacity will help offset this clear and worrying imbalance of resources).
However, we can highlight Sadiq’s many serious failings – on crime, on housebuilding, and on transport – til we are blue in the face, but we must back up our legitimate criticism with detailed plans for how a Conservative Mayor will deliver real change. We don’t want to make the same mistake that the current Labour Government made in winning power without any serious plan for using that power.
Worse still, without a strong manifesto we risk fighting the next mayoral election on political territory defined by Labour. We can spend the next London elections answering Labour’s questions – would we maintain Khan’s generous programme for universal free school meals? If we scrap the ULEZ then what will we do about declining air quality? – or we can define the political terms on which that contest is fought and make the other candidates (Labour, Green and Reform alike) dance to a tune of our choosing. We should have a plan to unstall the essential transport infrastructure projects that have stalled (indeed, languished) under the current mayor, and answer other pressing policy questions: How will we make sure that police numbers increase and the number of stabbings fall despite capricious, partisan funding decisions made in Whitehall? How will we fight the growing epidemics of sexual assault, rampant fare evasion and graffiti on the transport network? The previous Conservative Mayor of London delivered a higher proportion of affordable housing than the current occupant of City Hall, so how do we build on that positive legacy and get housebuilding back on track?
A new Conservative think tank focussed on London – either as a stand-alone organisation or as a dedicated, ring-fenced unit within an existing policy shop – can be a national asset. The capital’s policy challenges are often knottier, more pronounced and more specific than those afflicting other areas, but they are not unique. London does not have a monopoly on knife crime, housing shortages or delayed metro schemes. Viable solutions that address problems in the metropolis can be adapted and applied in other cities and city regions, therefore boosting Conservative prospects in other electoral contests across the country.
We cannot fight another London election based on the same old, well-rehearsed attack lines on congestion charging and crime as we have in the past – not least because the idea that Labour has failed in these areas is already priced-in with the electorate. If London Conservatives are unable to assemble a credible and compelling retail offer for voters before May 2028, then we risk fighting the next mayoral election on the backfoot and racking up a fourth consecutive defeat in London. We may even risk being overtaken as a leading force in the capital’s politics by newer, hungrier rivals with a flair for hollow populism.