Boris Watch

Nick Boles faces the London Assembly:
“The laws should be changed…”
“I didn’t read the Widdecombe provisions, I have no intention of ever reading the Widdecombe provisions…”
He was advised as to their content, apparently.

Boris has claimed that the transition team has eventually cost £213,000, which, he is keen to add, is significantly less than the previous prediction. However, he also admits that seven seemingly unacknowledged ‘transition consultants’ have cost £352,000. The eventual figure - which has only now been revealed - is greater than the combined annual wages [...]

Following the speculation of today, Simon Milton has resigned from both of his posts, and has been nominated as Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning. He will regain his salary and join the swelling ranks at City Hall.
The Press release reads thus:
“Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has today nominated Sir Simon Milton as Deputy Mayor [...]

Following their report A Fairer London, the GLA has announced that Boris is raising the Living Wage for London to £7.45. This is 25p higher than the previous Living Wage and 35% higher than the national minimum wage.
In a statement, they report that “one in seven employees receive less than the £6.50” and “one in [...]

Dave writes that, contrary to previous reports, Tim Parker - the man holding Boris’s right hand - will not submit a Register of Interest to the GLA website. Simon Barnes and Kit Malthouse have already, but it seems that Parker - “one of the UK’s most successful businessmen with an impressive track record in a [...]

The London Development Agency is looking for a new Chief Executive. They dangle a ‘significant six figure salary‘ in front of prospective applicants and demand ‘truly exceptional leadership credentials gained in a complex, dynamic environment‘.
The Times, however, claims that the Agency will in fact seek ‘an entire new board when the members’ four-year term expires [...]

The Standard reports on an inevitable cluster of sackings:

“Boris Johnson continued his City Hall clear-out today as five senior staff known as “Ken’s wimmin” lost their jobs.
Ken Livingstone’s partner Emma Beal, who was employed by the ex-Mayor as his “administration manager”, was the most high profile of those whose posts were axed.
Mr Johnson [...]

The members of the London Assembly have called into question “the manner and nature” of the appointment of Boris’s advisers. The Business Management and Administration Committee, to whom the revealing finance report was originally delivered, have demanded answers to a series of questions including:

The cost and length of appointment of each of the 15 ‘consultants’.

The [...]

In a written response to a question by Darren Johnson, Boris last week refused to reveal how much the public was paying for his team of his advisers. Today, however, we see that slyly imbedded in a report to the Business Management and Administration Committee is the admission that the pay of these consultants ‘will [...]

Policy Exchange is a British think tank, whose mission statement claims that it attempts to ‘develop and promote new policy ideas’. The Telegraph described it as “the largest, but also the most influential think tank on the right”, while The Guardian lambasted it as a “neo-con attack dog”. Despite the organisations claim to be “independent”, [...]