Generally speaking, politicians don’t launch inquiries into triumphs. In some ways, this is a missed opportunity. As Norman Fowler, a former Conservative health secretary and Lord Speaker once told me (regarding the government comms response to the HIV/Aids pandemic), “there’s nothing that says you can’t have an inquiry into a success story.”
Still, it would require yards of spin to suggest that a probe into the London Tories, as called for by party chair Greg Hands and first revealed by LBC, is required because they thought their mayoral selection process went if anything *too* well.
Strictly speaking, this is not a review into Susan Hall or how the nomination unfolded. Indeed, a party spokesperson noted that Lord Lister, a former Boris Johnson aide, would undertake an internal review into the “structures, processes and organisation” of the party in the capital.
Still, this line took something of a blow when one London Tory acknowledged that the inquiry threatened to “chop off at the knees” Hall’s mayoral campaign. Indeed, one senior London Tory told the Standard that the probe had to include how the final three Conservative mayoral contenders were decided on when “stand-out, far more experienced candidates Samuel Kasumu and Paul Scully” failed to make the final round.
The strangest part of all is that Hall, for all her views, is not a no-hoper. Cast your mind back to the last mayoral election: Shaun Bailey, hardly universally considered a strong candidate, secured a first-round haul of more than 35 per cent, compared with 40 per cent for Sadiq Khan – before losing by 10 points in the second round.
Of course, national politics are likely to be much more favourable to Labour in 2024 than they were in 2021, but there is also the threat of Khan fatigue, as well as active hostility from those impacted by the Ulez extension. Crucially, there is also the (fairly outrageous, in my opinion) change to the voting system for mayor, now first-past-the-post, meaning that the winner could conceivably be elected on less than 40 per cent of the vote.
Granted, it is not the most likely outcome. But at the risk of looking silly, it is really not impossible for Hall to win. So, when Khan romps home, I can at least comfort myself with the knowledge that I’m not as chaotic as the London Tories, who have contrived to nominate a candidate and then appear to launch a review – before the election has taken place – into how the heck that happened.
In the comment pages, Rohan Silva says David Lammy and William Hague are right to take up the fight against destructive deep-sea mining. Martha Gill suggests Lee Anderson has only exposed Tory asylum failures. While, for something completely different (and fascinating), Matthew Gould, CEO at the Zoological Society of London, urges us to do our bit for the elusive, brave eel.
And finally, a ‘near fight’ broke out at the Royal Albert Hall over noisy Proms popcorn – it could only be Londoner’s Diary.
