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Boris: I may only serve one term as Mayor of London
Katharine Barney23.04.09
Boris Johnson today revealed that he might not stand for a second term as Mayor — and would be ready to serve as Prime Minister.
In an exclusive interview with Evening Standard Editor Geordie Greig, he admitted he had not made up his mind about running for re-election. Mr Johnson said: “Nothing is excluded.”
The dramatic move fuels speculation that Mr Johnson will use City Hall as a springboard for his own attempt to take Downing Street, creating an electrifying rivalry with David Cameron at the top of the Conservative party.
Today the Mayor launched a fierce assault on the 50p tax rate for people earning more than £150,000, saying a Tory government should abolish it —which Mr Cameron and his shadow chancellor George Osborne have not promised to do.
He said: “I'm against it. The Tories should not proceed with it. I would really urge them to concentrate on the huge savings that are available to an incoming government in Whitehall and look at the colossal waste.”
Asked if he might serve as Prime Minister, he said: “If like Cincinnatus I were to be called from my plough, then obviously it would be wrong of me not to help out.”
He also waded into the issue of academic selection. He told the Spectator magazine that allowing state schools to select on academic merit was the answer “as everybody knows but dare not admit”.
Today the Mayor made his bid to reclaim St George's Day from the far-Right in his own inimitable style.
Crusaders whooped and hollered, the pearly king and queen clapped and cheered and chef Gary Rhodes traipsed around Leadenhall market carrying a bread and butter pudding.
Mr Johnson declared: “It is right we should celebrate the patron saint of England because we the English, with the help of other Celtic parts of the UK, have given the world so much.
“We have given them democracy and habeas corpus and brains and warm beer ... we've given them the offside trap; the rules of cricket.”
Exclusive interview with Boris Johnson
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