Warwick Lightfoot launches campaign

Warwick Lightfoot - website here - was the first Tory to formally declare for the Mayoral race.

Aged 49 Mr Lightfoot has considerable experience of local government and, as an economist, has worked for leading financial institutions and was an advisor to the Treasury during the Thatcher-Major years.

His website highlights the following issues:

• More police on the beat and the need to improve police detection rates - currently at just 18%;
• "Hold down" the council tax "precept" that has doubled under Ken Livingstone to £288;
• Better value for money on the tube - "we have little to show for the billions of pounds spent" - and proper ventilation on buses;
• The need to plant more trees and encourage recycling;
• An "Olympic legacy" that "should include better sports facilities and swimming pools throughout London so that we have a fitter, more active and healthier London"; and
• Promotion of London's financial markets - "the key to the success of the London economy".

Warwick Lightfoot also promises "an advisory senate of London Boroughs Leaders".  Ken Livingstone's cavalier attitude to working with the boroughs has consistently infuriated many Tory and other London councillors.

Comments

[Cllr. Robert-j Tasker]

Interesting name to throw into the hat.

I've met Warwick a couple of times and he's an extremely decent and amiable person. I believe he was mayor of Chelsea last year.Addressing the mayor's precept has got to be at the top of anybody's agenda.

My one stipulation would be whether he would appeal to voters in boroughs such as Tower Hamlets, Brent, or Newham.

[Dave Harris]

"Extremely decent and amiable person," Yes. Mayoral candidate or
Mayor? No. Surely, there is a candidate out there who has business
management experience, who has actually run something relevant to
providing London's police and transport, something that extends beyond
working for a company as an employee or running a business off a vast
inheritance? Ken Livingstone can relax if these two candidates are the
best we can do.

[Councillor Harry Phibbs]

Warwick Lightfoot would be a good Mayor of London. He should pitch himself as offering a serious contrast to Livingstone's gimmicks. Warwick would be strong on detail and substance. An alternative to Livingstone's egomaniac empire building. But to get selected and then (more to the point) elected Warwick needs to be bold and radical on policy. He should be prepared to criticise the police. He should promise not merely to trim City Hall bureaucracy but to slash it. He should scrap the deranged plans for an Uxbridge Road tram and Congestion Charge Extension.
What about a pledge to cut City Hall staffing levels back to what they were in 2000 when this caper started? Labour promised we wouldn't get a Mark II GLC but that is what is being created.
What about scrapping the bus monopoly? What about selling shares in the tube and spending the capital raised on air conditioning? What about helping to get rid of humps as the emergency services the Mayor is responsible for have requested? What about an enterprising approach to the River Thames so that more Londoners travel by boat?
What about...? Oh that's enough.

[Henry Mayhew]

Warwick Lightfoot is an excellent bloke. He is good news both in personality and understanding of London's economy. Comes from an ordinary background that will appeal to many and has worked his way to the very top. Will need to show his ability to reach out to people. A fantastic choice if he can get enough support from well-known interest groups to be defined in the public eye.

[londoner]

He seems well enough as a person but surely he is not particularly in touch with the people? How will he relate to families? and therefore he will beless likely to win votes.

[Opinicus]

What about us pledging a new referendum as to whether Londoners, queueing behind burning bendy buses, whilst wasting eight pounds to drive home on their own streets, so that they can sit down and write a cheque double the cost of 6 yrs ago to be let down (or randomly shot) by their local police, have repented of their earlier lunacy and realise they can get by very nicely without a Mayor after all, thanks.

We've closed him down once we can do it again.

Of course, we had a proper leader who believed in something in those days.

[Mary Jane]

At last someone who knows what London needs and Londoners want. Bye Bye Ken it is time you went.