Senior Conservative Sir James Cleverly has accused Andy Burnham of waging a “war on London” and promised “fight its corner” in his pitch for the mayoralty.
Sir James Cleverly, who resigned on Saturday to stand as London Mayor in 2028, has accused Andy Burnham of “waging a war on London.”
Sir James announced on Saturday he was quitting the Tory front bench, where he held the shadow housing, communities and local government brief since last July, to run for City Hall in the next election.
Speaking to LBC’s Paul Brand on Sunday morning, Sir James said: “The fact is Andy Burnham, for all his careful phraseology, is basically very, very anti-London.
“You can see this not just in what he’s saying but what he’s doing. He’s stripping hundreds of millions of pounds out of the budget of London councils.”
Labour incumbent Sir Sadiq Khan is halfway through his third term and has not confirmed whether he will stand again in May 2028.
It is unknown who will replace the Essex constituency’s MP in the shadow cabinet ahead of an anticipated reshuffle next month.
On his decision to stand, Mr Cleverly said he was “born and brought up Londoner,” and the city has not reached its “full potential” under Labour.
“Labour has let London down, and I want to do something about that,” he said.
The Peer said he had the support of Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, and after being asked previously if he would stand for mayor, he wanted to settle his position on this “publicly,” ahead of conference season.
Mr Cleverly denied the decision to run for mayor was because he believed the Conservatives had little chance of getting into government at the next election.
“I’m doing this because London needs a good mayor, and it doesn’t have one at the moment,” he emphasised.
“The Conservative Party need to do well in London, need to succeed in London as a stepping stone for Kemi becoming Prime Minister.”
Mr Cleverly pushed back on the suggestion that a cabinet position would be preferable to being London Mayor as “too Whitehall-focused, Westminster-focused.”
He insisted that the “Mayor of London should be on a par with senior cabinet positions.”
“When I was Foreign Secretary, and travelling around the world, I would meet mayors of big cities, like New York. I met those people as the UK Foreign Secretary.
“London is a global powerhouse city. London should be at the top table of every global decision. London is more influential than many smaller countries around the world.
He criticised Sadiq Khan for stepping down “from being a parliamentarian” and not making the “role of London Mayor that influential.”
Mr Cleverly accused the Prime Minister of “centralising power” in his favoured place: “his own backyard”, and claimed, “everyone else is going to suffer.”
But he insisted that “the people in Manchester will benefit from London’s success, not the other way around.”
Taking aim at Mr Burnham, Sir James said: “He is blaming London for London’s own success. The UK cannot be successful as a country unless London is successful as a city. And I see this in Braintree. Andy Burnham just doesn’t get it….He’s got a war with London, and London needs someone to fight its corner.”
He added: “It is a centralising of power in Andy Burnham’s favoured place, which is, you know, in his own backyard, and everyone else is going to suffer. And London particularly, because he is putting forward a very anti-London agenda.”
The Government has defended changes to the allocations, arguing they are “fixing an outdated funding system” whereby some of the wealthiest parts of the country “benefitted from exceptionally high levels of government support, while communities facing greater pressures lost out”.
On his approach to the election, Sir James said instead of tacking further right and “chasing other political parties for second preference votes,” he would “put forward a positive agenda for all Londoners and ask them to support me.
“What I hope is that Londoners vote for me in their first preference.
“But I also hope that even the people who are perhaps not instinctively or tribally Conservative will look at what I’m saying, look at what I’m proposing, and think, you know what, maybe I don’t normally vote Conservative, but this guy gets me. He gets this city. He gets it.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting (L) and former Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government James Cleverly attend the State Opening of Parliament. Picture: Getty
By Katy Dartford
