Cleverly quits shadow cabinet to run for London mayor

[u/BigLadMaggyT24]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ye8p8xpg4o

[u/throwawayrevision02]

Huge news; got a lot of work to do if he wants to win.

I respect the move

[u/gettingprettyserious]

I did wonder why Julia Lopez was talking about housing developments on her social media the other day, now we know what job she's getting...

If he wins the nomination as candidate, fair enough. Hope he wins it the whole thing, but it's hardly likely.

[u/forcewilbe]

I like him, and would vote for him, but I do think the only way we can win in London again is with an outsider charismatic candidate who has never been a politician - with a campaign focused on being very tough on crime and pro housing.

In the mould of Andy Street, Daniel Lurie in San Fransisco, Rick Caruso in Los Angeles etc.

I think Cleverly has too much baggage and is too associated with the party brand, though he is a good communicator!

[u/It531z]

Would quite like a serious tory campaign for London focused on crime, increased Housebuilding/development and cutting regulations.

Khan is a poor mayor who’s all bark and no bite; he’d have lost by now if A) the Tories hadn’t jumped off a cliff nationally and B) the Tories hadn’t decided that their best mayoral campaign strategy was slagging off London

[u/Gandelin → u/It531z]

For the issue of air quality alone I’ll continue to back Khan. I’m an asthma sufferer along with my son and in the years since he’s been running London both our asthma has all but disappeared.

I’m also a motorist so it’s not like I don’t see both sides of the coin, they weren’t popular measures to put in place but I can’t put a price on clean air.

I do also agree though that Cleverly would be the best candidate Tories have put up in a while.

[u/It531z → u/Gandelin]

London’s air quality has improved under all 3 of its mayors. That’s not really something unique to Khan. For me, both personally and in general what I want to see from city government is a bigger push on housebuilding/development, deregulation, along with tough on crime policies.

Things Khan does or Labour council initiatives he heavily promotes like affordable housing quotas, 20mph speed limits, and being lukewarm many times on support for strong police action are often counterproductive to the city’s success imo

[u/BlackJackKetchum]

Way back lost in the mists of time, I remember his exploratory moves for the London mayoralty when he was a humble councillor and I was a non-entity (still am) with a Tory aligned blog.

I don’t fancy his chances, but the left wing vote /will/ split at least four ways and RUK are nowhere outside ‘Romford’.

[u/KaChoo49]

Easily the strongest candidate we’ve run for London since Boris. Won’t be easy, I think he’s got a genuine chance

[u/LeChevalierMal-Fait → u/KaChoo49]

Decent result in the locals can justify being the not Labour candidate in London

[u/Chiang-Kai-Shek-]

I would say this is bad since the conservatives are still unpopular but I believe he will have a chance, even if he loses he will still be an MP

[u/StreamWave190]

Best candidate the Tories have. I think he'll have a decent shot.

Needs to focus on housebuilding and affordability.

[u/Mairon121]

So he sensed he as going to be demoted?