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London mayor severely warned over 2008 mayoral race and criticised by own team for trying to ‘offload’ own work in office Boris Johnson was warned by senior members of his campaign team that he would have his “fucking knees” cut off if he let them down in the 2008 London mayoral race, according to a forthcoming unauthorised biography of the Conservative mayor. The warning was given amid fears that Johnson had failed to grasp that just saying “I’m Boris Johnson” and relying on his charm would not be enough to oust the Labour incumbent, Ken Livingstone, according to a former colleague, Sonia Purnell. Johnson went on to beat Livingstone to run city hall where he was subsequently taken to one side by a senior city hall official and urged to “get a grip” after trying to “offload” the hard work of his job on to others. Purnell’s book, Just Boris, is being serialised in the Sunday Times as the Conservatives prepare to gather for their annual party conference next month, and as Johnson begins for a rematch with Livingstone in the 2012 mayoral election next May. The book revisits much of the details of his childhood and personal life first covered in a previous biography, The Rise of Boris Johnson, written by a former Daily Telegraph colleague, Andrew Gimson. Purnell, who was Johnson’s deputy when he was the Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent, recounts how Conservatives settled for Johnson as their mayoral candidate after failing to persuade a long list of high-profile candidates to stand, including the former Tory prime minister Sir John Major. Once installed as candidate, Johnson, who was sacked as shadow arts spokesman in 2004 by the then Tory leader Michael Howard for lying about an affair with his fellow Spectator journalist Petronella Wyatt, was “banned from philandering” during the mayoral campaign and ordered to write down any infidelities that were not yet in the public domain. The party enlisted the help of Lord Marland, a former party treasurer, and Lynton Crosby, the Australian election strategist, to help Johnson’s campaign. The pair, reportedly concerned at Johnson’s laid back approach, allegedly put him on notice that “we’ll cut your fucking knees off” if he let them down. He was told in no uncertain terms to apply “the tightest self-discipline” and warned that if he was a minute late for meetings with campaign donors, Marland would instantly resign. Marland told Purnell: “Boris had been able to wing it all his life through charm, intelligence and bashfulness. He really believed until then, that just saying “I’m Boris Johnson” and playing London Calling would do the job. We had to awaken him to the realisation that if he carried on the same way he really could lose.” Crosby has been enlisted again to spearhead Johnson’s re-election bid. Purnell, who describes Johnson as “the most ruthless, ambitious person I have ever met”, writes that Johnson tried to “offload” much of the hard work to a “top businessman” after being elected London mayor, to avoid having to do the boring aspects of the role himself. She said the idea of having Johnson as a “chairman mayor” supported by “an absolutely top flight chief operating officer” was the brainwave of one of Johnson’s campaign chiefs drawn up before the election amid fears that he did not possess the managerial skills set to run the capital. But the strategy of delegating the day-to-day running of the capital during the first few months of his mayoralty proved a disaster and after four months, according to Purnell, a senior city hall official had words. “In an extraordinary showdown in a restaurant after he was elected, a senior official told Johnson: “Boris, you’ve got to start being mayor. Go out there and be in charge. It was made crystal clear that … Boris could not afford to be semi-permanently out to lunch. He had to get down and dirty, to run things himself,” wrote Purnell. After two months of “near chaos” at city hall Tim Parker, a prominent businessman and former board member of the Audit Commission, came in and took on the chief executive role of “first deputy mayor”. But he stood down just a couple months later – becoming the third senior adviser to quit in the four months of Johnson’s reign, claiming he did not think Johnson needed a full-time first deputy mayor. The claim will resonate with some opposition members of the London assembly who were surprised when less than two years into the job, Johnson announced he was delegating the chairmanship of the Metropolitan Police Authority to his deputy mayor for policing, Kit Malthouse. Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the London assembly, said Johnson appears to rely too heavily on the advisers in his mayoralty. She pointed to the way city hall was left in temporary disarray following the death of Sir Simon Milton, Johnson’s chief of staff who died in April and who many saw as the real power behind Johnson’s mayoralty. Ed Lister, the Tory leader of Wandsworth council, was swiftly announced as his replacement. Pidgeon, chairs the assembly’s transport committee, chaired by Johnson, said the Conservative mayor also seems to leave much of the direction for transport policy to his deputy chair, Daniel Moylan. “He’s a very good front man but is not a details man,” said Pidgeon. “It is great having strong individuals in your top team but you have to give the direction and the vision. I don’t think he is doing that in areas such as Transport for London, and that is a problem.” Boris Johnson Conservatives London Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk