He is resigning with immediate effect.
James Cleverly wants to replace Sadiq Khan (Image: Getty)
Sir James Cleverly is quitting the Conservative shadow cabinet so he can run for Mayor of London. The MP for Braintree is leaving his role as shadow minister for housing, communities and local government with immediate effect, The Times reports.
He will be the Conservative candidate to replace Sir Sadiq Khan as London mayor. Speculation has rumbled for months that Sir James, who has held the shadow housing, communities and local government brief since last July, was considering a bid to run City Hall. It is not known who will replace him in the shadow cabinet. The former foreign secretary and Braintree MP said the capital needed “a champion, someone who understands its potential and is prepared to fight for its future”.
Conservative MP Sir James Cleverly has announced he is resigning from the shadow cabinet (Image: PA)
In an op-ed for the Sunday Times, he wrote: “I have told Kemi Badenoch that I will leave the shadow cabinet. Serving there has been a privilege, and I know there will continue to be strong voices around that table.
“But to run the most effective campaign possible, I must be free to speak about every aspect of London’s future and concentrate fully on winning this race.”
Posting on X (formerly Twitter) following the announcement, Cleverly wrote: “London needs more than an administrator.
“It needs a champion, someone who understands its potential and is prepared to fight for its future. That’s why I’m running to be the Conservative Candidate for London Mayor.”
A source close to Badenoch said that she was “gutted” to lose Cleverly.
They added: “Kemi is delighted that someone of his calibre wants to put himself forward to be Conservative nominee for mayor of London.
“She really wants someone to take on Sadiq Khan, as he is destroying the London she loves.”
Badenoch cannot yet endorse Cleverly to be Conservative candidate. He will have to win the Conservative Party’s nomination for the mayoral election.
Cleverly reportedly decided that he needed to make his position clear before the Conservative Party’s annual conference in October.
Taking aim at the current mayor, Cleverly told the Times: “It’s the visible things that are damaging London’s reputation.
“The impression that the mayor has given up on policing the streets. The constant ratcheting up of tax and regulation. It’s not good enough to say it’s all fake news. The way you deal with bad news, even if it’s unfair, is to put better news out there. Khan has spectacularly failed to do that.”
Londoners are not due to head to the polls to choose their next mayor until May 2028. Sadiq Khan is halfway through his third term and has yet to say whether he plans to stand for a historic fourth term.
The latest mayoral election took place in 2024 where he beat his Conservative rival Susan Hall by more than 276,000 votes representing a swing of 3.2% to Labour. Sadiq Khan won nine of the 14 constituencies including two gains from the Tories.