Boris Johnson’s first year as Mayor of London has proved something of a shock, especially to his own side. His enemies, including the Tory parliamentary leadership as well as the sort of people who toil on the Guardian’s comment pages, find they have underestimated him. It suited them to write him off as a clown who would soon make a complete mess of things, if by some fluke he were to defeat Ken Livingstone in the election held on 1 May last year.
This belief in Mr Johnson’s ineptitude became unsustainable last October when he sacked Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. The Mayor did not, in theory, have the power to sack Sir Ian: that prerogative belonged to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary. But Miss Smith was clearly not going to do the right thing, so Mr Johnson did it for her. He showed her up. Gordon Brown was furious, and raged to his friends in the press that the Mayor’s behaviour was intolerable. But those friends could not denounce Mr Johnson with any conviction. Sir Ian’s response to the shooting by his officers of an innocent Brazilian had been grotesquely inadequate. Having seized the moment to bundle Sir Ian out of Scotland Yard, the Mayor proceeded to mend fences with Miss Smith and agree with her on the appointment of a successor. No lasting political wrangle was allowed to undermine the policing of London.
So Mr Johnson has established himself as a serious player: a development which has caused consternation in the Tory leadership. David Cameron never wanted Mr Johnson to be the party’s mayoral candidate, and invited all sorts of other people to have a go, including, most ludicrously, Greg Dyke. One is told that when Mr Johnson’s name is mentioned, Mr Cameron and George Osborne make special little wriggly faces of disgust.
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