Conservative mayoral selection contests have rarely run smoothly, but this year really takes the biscuit. It’s been an embarrassment from start to finish.
For a year now the Tories have been searching vainly for a high profile candidate who was equipped to take on Sadiq Khan next May. They even approached me to run on three separate occasions. I mean, how desperate can you get, given the fact I don’t even live in London?
Today they’ve ended up selecting former London Assembly Tory group leader Susan Hall, in preference to the maverick newcomer Moz Hossain, who was unknown even to Tory insiders until a few weeks ago.
It ought to be an embarrassment for the Tories that in a year when, if they fight the right campaign, they could topple Mr Khan by making the election a referendum on Ulez, they have ended up having to choose between two candidates who can’t properly articulate the arguments against it — as they proved memorably on my LBC show last week.
It was the only media debate the two of them agreed to do, and it was pretty unedifying. Ms Hall didn’t have to try too hard to prevail, given the hyped up antics of the man who many listeners dubbed “Mad Moz”, having heard his deranged non-answers and rantings about building 700,000 new houses without any idea of the cost or where they could be built.
Ms Hall came across as the voice of sweet reason, even if she too was a little shaky on policy detail at times. But why did the Tory establishment clearly row in behind Mr Hossain, given his inexperience and unpredictability.
He had big financial backing, whereas Ms Hall has none. She doesn’t even have an office or the money for campaign materials. Something very odd has gone on, given Mr Hossain made the final two, and far better qualified candidates like the Minister for London, Paul Scully, didn’t.
When Daniel Korski dropped out of the race, Tory chairman Greg Hands should have halted the whole thing and ordered a rerun. It may prove to be a costly error of judgement.
To win a London mayoral election you need several attributes. You need the support of your central party. Ideally you are likeable. You must know how to generate headlines but in a good way. You need a positive policy platform. You need to know how to fight your opponent. You need a strong team around you.
Ms Hall is likeable and knows how to goad Mr Khan, as she have proved over the years at the mayoral question time in City Hall. Does she have a developed policy platform beyond the slogan “Safer with Susan”? She knows how to generate headlines but not always in a good way, as her sometime misjudged tweets prove.
Will she get any support from Tory HQ or just be hung out to dry? Can she build a strong team around her? We are about to find out.
