Cleverly avoids culture war issues in pitch to be next London mayor

Conservative hopeful says Sadiq Khan has ‘lost passion for the job’ and Andy Burnham is ‘very anti-London’ James Cleverly has pledged to run a “classically Conservative” campaign to become the mayor of London, insisting that his victory in the capital would be a stepping stone for Kemi Badenoch to become prime minister. The former home and foreign secretary denied he had resigned from the shadow cabinet to run for mayor following a shift to the right under Badenoch’s leadership. However, in a series of interviews on Sunday he avoided speaking about culture war issues, which have been a focus for the Conservative leader. “I am going to put forward a classic Conservative case to be the mayor of London, and it’s about enterprise, it’s about opportunity,” Cleverly told Times Radio. “That is a classically Conservative vision, and it will run in parallel to and supportive of Kemi’s plans for the country as a whole.” If he wins his party’s nomination, Cleverly is expected to run a more moderate campaign than the last Tory candidate, Susan Hall. She drew criticism for claiming there was a “problem with crime” in the black community and was forced to apologise for liking a tweet in 2020 tha