Boris Should Resign Mayoralty Now

As the campaigning for May’s General Election slowly ramps up, we now know that Rupe’s downmarket troops at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun have decided that Young Dave may not be leading the Tory Party afterwards - in other words, they think he will lose and will then decide to pile off before the mythical Men In Grey Suits arrive with the bottle of reassuringly upmarket whisky and a loaded revolver.

This was made clear yesterday by the paper’s non-bullying political editor Tom Newton Dunn, who has been invited on a jolly by London’s occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson to the well-known East End tube terminus otherwise known as Kurdistan. In return for tagging along on Bozza’s pilgrimage to the Land Of His Fathers, Newton Dunn has penned an appallingly sycophantic article in his praise.

“Boris battles IS” was the headline. Sadly, as Captain Blackadder might have observed, there was only one thing wrong with this idea - it was bollocks. Bozza may have posed for the cameras while holding an automatic weapon - no, a gun, not that kind of Bozza automatic weapon (ooer!) - but the only battle being fought was that coming after the election between Himself Personally Now and other senior Tories.

But some of Newton Dunn’s weapons grade arsewipe has a sliver of reality in it - although maybe not in the way he intended. While “Boris Johnson is in Kurdistan to assess the fight against ISIL personally” is as meaningless as Bozza’s trip, “The London Mayor has mounted a high-risk trip” is, by sheer coincidence, spot on. Sadly, the high risk is not to Bozza’s personal safety, but to the credibility of his Mayoralty.

While Newton Dunn waffles aimlessly that “Boris calls on PM to send more UK troops to help the Peshmerga fight Islamic State”, something that is not going to happen this side of hell freezing over, an increasing number of those living in and around London will be asking themselves the all too obvious question: what is the man elected to run the capital doing pissing about in the Middle East instead?

Increasing congestion, partly because Bozza has repeatedly caved in to the car lobby, appalling air quality along many of London’s roads, a deteriorating bus service, the long-running inability of TfL to address Black Cab drivers’ concerns over Uber, worsening reliability on some Tube lines (especially the District and Piccadilly), along with his propensity to waste public money on vanity projects, all need his attention.

And he cannot give Londoners’ concerns his attention if he insists on running off to enjoy jollies in the Middle East, as well as spending increasing amounts of time elsewhere in the UK helping the Tories’ election campaign. If Bozza is not going to do his job as Mayor - for which he is still drawing a salary - he should resign and let someone else do it. And he should do it now, rather than waiting until the end of his term next year.

For the good of London, Bozza should step down. He is now a liability to the capital.