Any questions for Andrew Boff?

Andrew Boff is one of the four shortlisted candidates for the Conservative nomination for London Mayor.  He was second-placed in yesterday's ConservativeHome survey of London Tories.

A Londoner all his life, Andrew runs an IT consultancy and is publisher of EASTeight magazine. He and his partner, who registered their civil partnership in December 2005, live in Hackney.

Andrew is the secretary of the BMTRA, a social enterprise which, by managing London's most successful community-run market, Broadway Market, regenerates the area.

Andrew led Hillingdon Conservatives to victory against the national trend in 1990 and was Chief Whip of the London Boroughs Association. In 1993 he co-founded the “Civic Skills” consultancy. He contested Hornsey and Wood Green in 1992 and stood for the European Parliament for Lewisham, Southwark and Greenwich.

He was GLA candidate for Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest in 2004. In 2005 he won a solid Labour seat on Hackney Council at a by-election and a year later more than trebled the party's vote over the previous full Borough elections.

If you have any questions for Andrew please leave them in the thread below.

Comments

[Les]

Andrew

As a person with an impressive track record in local government, I wonder how you feel about the Conservative party's various attempts to push seemingly unqualified 'celebrities' into the role.

To me, this says that winning the Mayoral election is more important to the party than any competence that the candidate might bring to the actual job.

[malcolm]

What would be your top priority be Andrew?
And what do you see as Livingstone's biggest blunder?

[Steve Smith]

Andrew,

What skills and experience do you consider you have that would make you the best candidate to beat Livingstone next May?
In the 4 weeks left of the primary campaign, how do you propose to get your message across?
Do you think you can beat Boris Johnson?

[Father Brian]

The Conservatives made a fatal mistake by not fielding a top-rate candidate at the first GLA elections, then another by fielding a proven loser at the next. Livingstone and Labour in London now regard the post of Mayor as their personal property and that'll be hard to overcome.

What can you suggest to remedy this?

[Alan S]

You are the second-placed candidate but 60% behind BJ according to the ConHome poll. Be honest: Your only hope of becoming our candidate is if Boris has to quit the primary race. Right?

[John Moss]

Andrew,

You make a lot of your experiences in Hackney, how can these translate to the rest of London - where our support is stronger than it is is Hackney - and we must get out our support in droves in order to win.

[Londoner]

If you do not win the nomination, would you accept an invitation to work as part of the top team of whoever does, both in the election and maybe beyond?

What particular role would you like to play in such a campaign/administration?

[Editor]

Thank you for your questions. This thread is now closed.