After reports that he was furious with George Osborne and David Cameron for trying to call his bluff by telling him to stand as a parliamentary candidate in 2015, Boris Johnson got his chance to deny that he was at war with the Chancellor on his ‘Ask Boris’ LBC show this morning.
Diana in Surbiton asked Boris about the story, insisting that he tell her what he said to the Chancellor: ‘I’ve said many things to my friend George Osborne,’ he chuckled, adding that ‘I haven’t had a conversation of any such kind with George Osborne’.
He added:
‘George and I have a very, very good working relationship and indeed an old, old friendship and what we both want to do is get David Cameron re-elected in 2015 and that is the project about which we are united.’
He then launched into a spiel about how exciting it was that he could oversee the ‘tunnelising’ of the Hammersmith flyover. So presenter Nick Ferrari asked him:
‘You’re not going into the Commons prior to 2015 because of the excitement of the Hammersmith flyunder?’
Boris replied: ‘Correct. The sheer excitement of the Hammersmith flyunder is.. the answer is I’m sticking to my job that I was elected to do in 2012.’
Is that really a denial that he wants to stand for election in 2015? The question was whether Boris would go into the Commons prior to 2015, which still means he could stand in the 2015 election. Some of his allies want him to take up a safe seat that may well become available in the last few months before the election campaign. Today’s interview didn’t rule that out.
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