Boris Johnson to stand for Uxbridge and South Ruislip

London mayor Boris Johnson has applied to stand as the Conservative candidate for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in next year's general election. 

 

Johnson, who has been the mayor since he unseated Ken Livingstone in 2008, submitted his name to the Conservative Campaign Headquarters this morning, two days before the deadline. 

 

If his bid is successful, he will stand for the safe seat being vacated by Sir John Randall, who took an 11,000 majority last general election.

 

His application will be assessed by a committee from the Uxbridge and South Ruislip Conservative Association and colleagues in central London on 5 September, and the decision will be announced on 12 September at Ruislip High School, according to local news site Get West London. 

 

BoJo has attempted unsuccessfully to hide his desire to return to parliament throughout much of his second term as mayor, finally revealing his plans last month, though not which seat he was eyeing. 

 

He will be hoping for a more decisive victory than he received in the T-shirt stakes, after local Uxbridge businessman Scott Balcony claimed he was selling two “Uxbridge says No! to Boris” T-shirts for every one.

 

One of the perceived reasons for his reticence until now is the question of whether this is a move for him to take the Tory top spot, but it's getting harder to ignore, despite his protestations. Bookies Ladbrokes now has him as 5/2 favourite for the leadership role. 

 

In the meantime, and assuming he gets elected, The Telegraph has reported that he is being lined up as business secretary for next government.