Sir James Cleverly has refused to rule out running for London Mayor as the Conservative candidate as he defended the party’s performance in the local elections.
Speaking during The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News, he said: “The London mayoralty is incredibly important, and it would be daft for any serious politician not to give it consideration.
“But I love being MP for Braintree. I want to get Essex back into Conservative control. I want to get Kemi into Number 10. That’s what I’m focused on. As I say, you can compare that with the last time you asked me. I think you’ll find that’s the same answer.”
He said the Conservatives had a “difficult” time in some areas during the local elections: “We took back control of Westminster council. We’re now controlling Wandsworth council. We made gains in Peterborough. We made gains in Suella Braverman’s backyard. We made gains in Harlow.
“You can try and dance on the head of a pin – we now control Wandsworth council. We control Westminster council. We control Harlow. We control Barnet. We took Barnet back, Harrow, massive gains and Harrow in Peterborough, in Fareham. We held on to Kent in Nigel Farage’s backyard, where he lives.
“The point is that it was a difficult night in a number of places, and we’ve got work that we have to do. We completely recognise that.
“But the fact is that the people, let’s say, Bromley, for example, just across the county border with Kent, they can see what a catastrophe Reform are making in Kent, which is why the people of Bromley voted Conservative, and that is going to keep happening.
“We are the only party that’s putting forward a credible plan to reduce dependency on welfare, to protect our country, protect our economy. None of the other political parties are doing that.”
He said: “Our share of vote increased from this time last year. The numbers of councillors that we’ve lost, of course, it was painful, and that’s also true with our members of the Senedd and the Scottish Parliament, but our share of vote increased.
“The gap last year between Conservatives and Reform was 17 points. This year that was down to 7 points. We’ve closed the gap significantly. There is still much, much more work to do, and Kemi was the first to make that clear.
“But the fact is that the people that have gone to the polls this week recognise the choices between a leader with integrity and a plan or this useless Labour Party, and we have really started making our case. There’s lots of work to do.”
