Zac goldsmith

Many suspect that the latest delay on a third runway at Heathrow is actually the government bending to the will of Zac Goldsmith. On the Daily Politics today, the Conservative’s London mayoral candidate said he hadn’t been consulted on the latest delay — all the communications have been one-way from him to the government, apparently — but he still welcomed the decision: ‘It’s an important issue, but it’s not as important as housing, it’s not as important as policing or TFL investments or any of these other issues, so I am delighted that Heathrow is not going to be the dominant issue in the run up to the Mayoral election, of course I am’. Goldsmith also argued this is

There is some irony in David Cameron giving a speech claiming that ‘this is a government that delivers’ on the day that Number 10 effectively concedes that he will not be delivering his decision on airport expansion as planned by the end of this year. At the lobby briefing this morning, the Prime Minister’s official spokeswoman said he would ‘present a clear direction’ on airports policy by the end of the year, which is different to a clear decision. The spokeswoman insisted that the government was committed to ‘providing the next step forward by the end of the year’ but that the press shouldn’t get lost in semantics. The delay

Back in March, the Plymouth Herald was delighted by ‘a Budget with plenty for Plymouth’. As Mark Gettleson noted on Coffee House at the time, Plymouth is a ‘hyper-marginal city’: both its seats are currently held by Tories with small majorities, Oliver Colvile and Johnny Mercer. So the Chancellor’s generosity may not have come out of the blue. Now we have had an Autumn Statement with a bit more for Plymouth – half a million pounds for the 2020 Mayflower anniversary. Some might think it an exaggeration to describe this as pork barrel spending. But it was interesting to see how else Osborne spent the money. Even amid the ‘difficult decisions’,

Given that Ivan Massow failed to be picked as one of the four final candidates in the race to be the Conservative candidate for London mayor despite a flashy campaign, it’s safe to say that Massow still has some work to do when it comes to mastering how to succeed in politics. So Mr S was surprised to hear that the business mogul is now assisting Zac Goldsmith with his campaign. Speaking at Josh Spero’s Second Hand Stories book launch party at Bonhams, Massow said he was working with the Conservative mayoral candidate when it came to the policy side of things: ‘I’m working with Zac. I speak to him a lot but

With Zac Goldsmith today announced as the Conservative candidate for the 2015 London mayoral race, the Tory MP will now face Sadiq Khan in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as mayor. However, one man who feels he should not be forgotten as a contender is George Galloway. Galloway — who is running as an independent candidate for mayor — thinks that there is a gap in the market for him in the race, as Labour’s Sadiq Khan is just not up to it. Speaking on the Daily Politics, Galloway said that while he was disappointed that Tessa Jowell is not Labour’s candidate – given that she differs from him more politically than Khan – Khan is still no real

Heathrow expansion is one key policy area that is affected by the recent Labour elections. Sadiq Khan’s victory in the London mayoral nomination contest means that the London Labour party will be campaigning against a third runway. Tessa Jowell was tentatively pro-Heathrow but Khan made a pledge during the campaign to oppose a third runway — one that he would find it very hard to renege on. And assuming the bookies are right and Zac Goldsmith is selected as the Conservative candidate, all of the London mayoral candidates will be campaigning against Heathrow expansion (the Greens and Lib Dems are also likely to be against it). The Labour party overall is heading in an anti-Heathrow

Boris Johnson’s war with black cab drivers stepped up a notch today. His monthly Mayor’s Question Time session was abruptly shut down after cabbies packed out the public gallery of London City Hall to protest about what they see as Transport for London’s unfair regulations for Uber. As the video above shows, Johnson’s description of the cabbies as ‘Luddites’ did not go down well at all and the London Assembly’s deputy chair decided it should end. Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, has told the Evening Standard Boris’s ‘Luddite’ was to blame, saying it was not ‘the smartest of moves but it escalated out of all proportion’. The fracas

How is Sadiq Khan feeling about the prospect of taking on Zac Goldsmith, who is favourite to be the Tory London mayoral candidate? Shortly after he was unveiled as the Labour candidate, Sadiq Khan had a chat with Coffee House about his campaign. He seemed confident that he could beat Goldsmith but acknowledged he is a formidable opponent: ‘I like Zac, he’s a charming guy…let’s wait and see what the Tory party do. They still believe in democracy, let them vote for their candidate. Once they choose — it’s gonna be him, we know that — once they choose their candidate, well then see what happens. But, my key thing

There is one topic the four Tory candidates for London mayor can agree on: Boris. Throughout the first public hustings at the Institute of Directors last night, Andrew Boff, Zac Goldsmith, Syed Kamall and Stephen Greenhalgh all tried to outdo each other by singing praises of the outgoing mayor. Greenhalgh, Boris’s deputy for policing and crime, said he was the ‘greatest mayor of greatest city on earth’, while Goldsmith said ‘London has been incredibly well served over the last 8 years by Boris Johnson, we’ve been lucky to have him as mayor’. The candidates walked a careful line between insisting they were the right candidate to build on his legacy, while

Oh dear. This week the Bow Group sent out invitations to members and supporters announcing that Zac Goldsmith would give the speech at the Conservative think tank’s summer party. ‘Our keynote speech will be from Zac Goldsmith, the Member of Parliament for Richmond Park who is currently seeking the Conservative Party nomination to succeed Boris Johnson MP as Mayor of London. After Zac’s keynote speech, he will hold an extended Q&A to answer any questions from the audience.’ However, some naysayers began to query why the Tory MP was speaking at the event, after the Tory think tank made the news during the election campaign for backing a number of Ukip MPs including Mark