Boris launches London mayor bid

Last Modified: 03 Sep 2007
By: Katie Razzall

Tory MP Boris Johnson officially launches his campaign to become the next London mayor.

As announcements went, it was certainly direct: I am Boris Johnson and I want to be mayor of London.

The flamboyant Conservative MP offically launched his campaign this morning, to the strains of London Calling by the Clash and the occasional burst of Star Wars from an exhibition next door.

Mr Johnson, who is no stranger to the political gaffe, toned down the jokes and stressed his commitment to improving life in the capital.

Johnson's biographer calls him a figure from the 18th century, whose shambolic laid-back manner hides huge ambition.

A technical hitch playing the campaign video meant Boris Johnson was uncharacteristically silent at the start of his launch for london mayor today.

It didn't phase his supporters, who'd been given "Back Boris" T-shirts and placards at the door. Many had been rallied to the cause as members of Boris fan groups on the social networking site Facebook.

With the sound problems sorted and the video shown, on came Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson - to introduce him properly - the Eton and Oxford-educated MP for Henley.

He hit back at those who accuse him of being not just right-wing, not just gaffe-prone, but a bigot.

It was a Johnson article in the Telegraph, in which he referred to "flag-waving piccaninnies", that led one black newspaper to say his selection would be nothing less than an insult.

Mr Johnson rejects any suggestion of racism - and whatever his detractors say, he's the Conservatives' biggest celebrity.

Boris Johnson's biographer calls him a figure from the 18th century, whose shambolic laid-back manner hides huge ambition.

But Boris Johnson is a politican who seems to be forever apologising - most famously, on a grovelling visit to Liverpool after his magazine, The Spectator, suggested its residents wallowed in being victims.

Today the hopeful candidate was at London's County Hall, talking of 24-hour policing and - in a break with Tory policy - keeping the congestion charge.

Boris isn't officially the Conservative candidate - the vote is later this month. But the most recent polling puts him neck and neck in a contest with Ken Livingstone.