Politics

Rory Stewart on trees, hating the MI6 building and trying to ‘look cool’ at Notting Hill Carnival



Rory Stewart said he once wandered around Notting Hill Carnival “trying to look cool” as he spoke about the years he has spent walking London’s streets.

The former Tory leadership hopeful left the party in October to stand as an independent candidate for the Mayor of London, describing himself as the “underdog” in the race to City Hall. 

Now, he is building his #RoryWalks campaign with a growing army of 10,000 volunteers, who are strolling through the capital and speaking directly to Londoners about their hometown.


Mr Stewart has now told the Standard about his life in London – growing up in South Kensington, walking along the Thames, what he really thinks of the MI6 building and why Pret is his “favourite pub”.

Former Tory MP Rory Stewart speaks to the media at the scene in Seven Kings, Ilford, (File photo) (PA)

He even admitted that in his 20s, he went to Notting Hill Carnival where he “probably wandered around and tried to look cool.” 

“My London is like everybody’s London – it’s is very complicated,” Mr Stewart said, as he began speaking about living in the same South Kensington house that he grew up in as a boy. 

“I’m an old Londoner. My grandmother was born on the same street [in South Kensington] in 1912 and was laid onto straw,” he said.

He said his family’s life in London spanned different eras of the city, with his grandmother being born onto straw in 1912, while his son will live to see the city full of electric cars.

Mr Stewart also described different generations of his family living in the same evolving city as “precious to me”.

But he said his favourite thing about the place is that London is “infinite”. 

“It’s a community of 700 villages. From the Seven Kings in Ilford to the Houses of Parliament.

Rory Stewart with campaign volunteers in Stockwell. (Rebecca Speare-Cole)

“In one moment, I can be walking down Edgware Road with six Afghan guys looking for coffee and ending up at Starbucks.” 

And the next moment, the former MP is standing on the doorsteps of big Georgian houses in Stockwell in freezing-cold January, trying to persuade the owners to back his independent vision for the capital. 

That vision starts with knowing London inside-out to the point that he would spend his day off walking the Thames “end-to-end”.

“From Putney to Greenwich – actually maybe I could make it to Thamesmead,” he said. “There’s an amazing 1960s development there with these huge beautiful water features.”

On his walk, Mr Stewart said he would not listen to music or a podcast but keep his “eyes and ears open” to catch glimpses of the back of “houses, hotels, industrial areas, Putney Bridge”. 

However, he does not like to look at one particular building on the south side of the river in Vauxhall.

Rory Stewart is running as an independent candidate for Mayor of London (Getty Images)

“I do not like MI6. It looks like a 1980s Ziggurat hotel,” he said, before giving “no comment” about his opinion of what it is like on the inside.

Mr Stewart has previously denied claims that he used to spy for MI6 – but has acknowledged he could not admit to being a spy even if he had been.

On the other hand, Mr Stewart is known to be a fan of Pret – specifically the small branch inside South Kensington Tube Station – which he once called it his “favourite pub”.

“I have a two-year-old and a five-year-old son, who love the gingerbread men and the gingerbread women” he explained. 

“Every spare moment I have, I want to spend with them. So if you have a two-year-old and a five-year-old, you do not go to pubs.”

Mr Stewart does find time to run around the Serpentine. He said: “I try to do that every day and Hyde Park contains so much of what I love about London”. 

This includes trees which he says he is “obsessed with planting.”

Rory Stewart outside Millbank television studios in London during the Tory leadership battle (PA)

“There needs to be more trees in London. I’m totally enraged by that fact,” he said. 

“There are so many opportunities to plant trees but there’s always a reason not to, like there is not enough room or there is clay soil. But then there’s a tree right there!

“It is a good example of something we could be doing. And then next there’s is more difficult things to tackle like air pollution on the tube.”

Speaking about moving away from Parliament and embarking on a massive grassroots campaign, Mr Stewart said: “I much prefer this. I’m learning so much all the time I can help people much more directly.

“I’m the underdog in the race and I do not have a party machine behind me but I now have 53 people working to build up that volunteer voice. I feel much freer.”

After Brexit and the general election, Mr Stewart said he recognises that people are “exhausted” and “fed up” and so creating momentum behind a political campaign could be challenging. 

“I can win people over so if I lose it is because the campaign did not get enough visibility,” he said.

Asked about the months ahead until the election on May 7, he added: “It is not daunting. It is challenging in a positive way.”

“The challenge is, can you make them really be interested? Can you make them see how much a mayor can do?,” he said. “And this is their city. They can change their city.”

If elected, one change Mr Stewart could introduce is more street parties like Notting Hill Carnival.

“I would like to do more festivals on the Thames – I would like to do one on the Edgware Road, for example, where there are so many different communities.”



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