Boris selected: what’s next for the Tory leadership hopeful?

Unsurprisingly, Uxbridge and South Ruislip Conservatives picked Boris Johnson last night as their parliamentary candidate for the 2015 election. Boris has a 11,216 majority to defend, but that’s only the start of the work he needs to do.

His supporters are well aware that before the Mayor can ever throw his hat into that leadership ring that they’re all looking forward to, he needs to build better links in the Parliamentary Conservative party beyond those who already think he is wonderful. He needs to reach out, for instance, to those MPs who have been brought into the George Osborne camp by the Chancellor’s clever system of patronage and promotion. Boris might be hoping that he can exploit the major flaw in his rival’s method of building support: it is all based on what George can do to sate personal ambition, rather than what he can do for the Conservatives as a party.