There can be no doubt that many in the press pack don’t understand the real position occupied by most of London’s ‘deputy mayors’, a situation which has suited City Hall as Johnson shed more and more of his job to unelected employees.
It must have seemed like such a wheeze to hand out ‘deputy mayor’ job titles to salaried staff and City Hall officials wasted no time dismissing the protests of those of who us who knew the titles would cause widespread confusion.
Over the past few weeks it’s become increasingly clear that the resulting confusion was no side-effect of a hasty decision but a calculated tactic to make it look as if the people making visits and taking decisions had some form of electoral legitimacy.
But as ‘Deputy Mayor’ Ray Lewis finds himself embroiled in a series of hotly denied allegations the decision to award these “honourific” job titles looks markedly less clever.
As one City Hall press officer told me during the first few days of Boris Johnson’s administration: “we are where we are with the job titles”. Indeed we are, but it’s not quite where Team Johnson wanted to be.
A sloppy disregard for what went before and the legal definition of the role of Deputy Mayor are going to make the next few days much harder for Johnson and Mr Lewis than they needed to be. In his statement tonight Lewis says:
“Being Deputy Mayor of London is the greatest honour of my life and I will not allow that office – or Boris’ trust in me – to be tainted in any way.”
The best way he and Boris can protect the office of Deputy Mayor is to stop pretending anyone other than Richard Barnes occupies it.
A Londoner Writes says
Never can so many words have been used just to say: “I told you so” 😉
Martin (Editor) says
@ALW: A lot of people tried to warn that the job titles were likely to confuse and privately many people said they would eventually blow up in their faces.
Given the arrogant dismissals of the new City Hall team I feel vindicated pointing oout that they were warned.
Damian Hockney says
There is never any harm in saying ‘I told you so’ when you were completely right but ignored: many more people warned privately that it was extraordinary to appoint advisers to titles which would confuse by being exactly the same as a statutory title to be held by one person (ie Richard Barnes). We also said that the Mayor was handing a hostage to fortune by doing something would allow many people to put out official statements calling themselves ‘Deputy Mayor’ of London when they are not…and of course for headline writers to give maximum impact to any piece of aggro – has everyone seen the Standard “Deputy Mayor Sleaze” boards all over London tonight?
Penny says
As the allegations pre-date his appointment & are unconnected to his job at City Hall can someone explain why GLA resources (funded by taxpayers) are being used to defend Lewis?
Andy, Lewisham says
So Lewis is gone and Boris claims he was misled. Anyone betting he regrets ever meeting Ray Lewis or handing out these bauble titles?
Do you think we’ll see another ‘Deputy Mayor’ appointed?