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Will Boris and Cameron go to war over the Budget?

Mayor warns that London must be spared from “dramatic and deep cuts”.

The dramatic spending cuts planned by the coalition government have yet to produce any significant divisions on the Conservative side, but that may have changed today with the intervention of Boris Johnson.

Boris, who rarely misses an opportunity to provoke David Cameron, told the London Assembly that he was fighting to protect the capital from the "dramatic and deep cuts" announced by the Chancellor, George Osborne.

In particular, he is desperate to secure the future of the £16bn Crossrail project and vital Tube upgrades.

He said: "It is quite wrong to treat us [London] in the same way as other, more spendthrift areas of Whitehall."

Cameron will be reluctant to concede to Boris. The coalition's mantra remains "We're all in this together": no exceptions can be made (the £110bn NHS budget aside). And among voters there is a widespread perception that London has received preferential treatment for far too long.

But the Prime Minister and his allies will be troubled by Boris's intervention all the same. After Michael Gove was forced to announce that many schools weren't going to be rebuilt after all, we witnessed the unusual spectacle of Conservative MPs (Ian Liddell-Grainger, Philip Davies) against Tory cuts.

As cuts move steadily from the abstract to the specific, we can expect others to join them. In every case, the MP in question will insist that while reducing the country's £149bn Budget deficit remains the priority, an exception should be made for them and their constituents.

Boris, the man still seem by some as the party's leader-in-waiting, could yet become a rallying point for anti-cuts Tories.

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14 comments

Susan Allan's picture

ehtch tree, I just found out someone close to me has been "doing the deed" with a prostitute, who also has a degree, says she makes money from the degree, but seems to want to supplement her income charging policemen, judges and filmstars for her wares. Wonder if she's having protected sex! Should we also be expecting baby no2 from said prostitute? She's about to face deportation as she was charged. Just to put things in perspective for you boris. Shower often my dear!

jie4v7i14's picture

Yes Susan whatever, but the daughter in the pram looks like Boris, blonde, blue eyed(strong genes Boris!), and since the mother is brown eyed and the husband at the time was brown eyed. Also, she looks the split of Boris, which helps with gossip all abouts.

Susan Allan's picture

ehtch tree, I am most certainly not disagreeing with you. The baby looks like boris. That's two men crowded over her so far, both in the money, just like the whore who decided, despite having a degree, despite having a relationship, that she would like to make more money selling her body. I used to like boris, so it's no victory to me, but boris, you don't have to sleep with Danny to annoy me, (marry him first please for the sake of your career and reputation) just do something like sleeping with ? to annoy everyone, including your own party. Nick Clegg will understand! He's had sex with 20 different people, and wants more polish people (the prossie is polish) to come into this country. What a lesson and example for us all! Am nasty is more like it, and he can run away from all the problems in Britain .

jie4v7i14's picture

Susan, but you have got to say, hey, Boris, you sly devil, spreading his genes like he does when nobody is looking.

He's a lad, isn't he? No idea what his wife thinks though, being married to a complete slag.

Susan Allan's picture

ehtchTee - A sly fox indeed. Should be interesting to see what his party make of this!

Susan Allan's picture

yes lets keep on the Danny Boyle thread of dna. Before being deported to a slum, which will probably result in him being permanently burgled which many of the people who didn't receive the same attention as the big eye or the millennium dome did, (or one of the most evil buildings I have ever set eyes on, name unknown, in London) that being burgled regularly, maybe YOU could make a version of porno. The two of you could share a line with chasey lane ("better than any sex") run it past Sheriff Graeme Buchannon, someone else who has been abusing his position and influence so you'll be WELL IN there, (please look up Sheriff Graeme Buchannon who has had a hand in ruining quite allot) and when you have enough money from the proceeds of your patheticness, feel free to retire to the slums you did nothing but exploit.

I am beginning to think we would really be better off without all this pressure to perform in sports. Healthy eating and physical fitness is important, so is education, and this frenzy to lose all sight of real issues so we can watch the hamsters on the wheel seems expensive and a bit pointless! You could spend the money on schools and housing!

jeremiah's picture

Does anyone actually think a hooray tosspot like Bozza could possibly lead the Tories?

No doubt some things worry Dave but Bozza being PM shouldn't be one of them.

swatantra's picture

What people haveto understnd is politics is all about personality and not policies The fact is Johnson has bags of personality. Thats what got him elected to City Hall in the first place, by a load of gullible voters. Johnson is ambitious. He genuinely wants to be PM, just for the sake of it, not to actually improve Britain. He also believes he has a deivine right to rule. Johnsons rule would be pretty autocratic and authoritarian.

Susan Allan's picture

Na! Employing Danny Boyle, who has admitted rather proudly to exploiting the children he worked with, is professional suicide.

Bad luck Boris. I used to think you were a hoot!

Susan Allan's picture

London must be spared from Danny Boyle more like. My old maths teacher used to say, "what goes for one of us, goes for all of us!" You look good, you are funny, and I prefer you to Alex Salmond. However Theresa May is very impressive.

Section 28?

frances smith's picture

those eton rivalries just go on and on. the only question worth asking here is that once the tories have lost the next election (as they surely will) next june, theyll be looking for a new leader and one untouched by the nasty tory image is their only option, if they arent to sink into oblivion, whether that is boris' agenda i couldnt possibly know.

Richard's picture

In a one on one fight Boris would walk all over Cameron and Osborne. However he is never likely to get the chance. There will be a team effort to keep Boris in his box. Cameron would do well to think on what would happen if Boris was kicked out of the mayoral seat. At the moment Boris is in a box the other side of the river...a different problem should he become a fellow occupant on the same box in Westminster.

jie4v7i14's picture

How arrogant can someone be? Let the rest of the country rot, but not my London, says Boris.

Anyway, Boris looks to be in the middle of tittle-tattle small talk, whether it is true or not does not matter much, let us just have a laugh at his expense, again (excuse the DM links, by the way...)
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/07/16/article-1295125-0A74FE1E000005...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295125/London-mayor-Boris-Johns...

Dave C's picture

Boris has to play a long game. First, in May 2012, he has to be re-elected as Mayor of London, in order retain his prominence as a Tory politician. Successfully opposing cuts helps him there.

Second, when the 'Coalition' get wiped out in May 2015, step forward Boris, with a clean pair of hands, who can offer himself as the next Tory leader.

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