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Rory Stewart will be able to focus on “London’s interests” after shedding the “baggage” of political parties, he said today.
The former Tory leadership hopeful, who revealed his intentions to stand for London Mayor exclusively in the Evening Standard , accused British politics of “dragging towards the extremes.”
“I would like to be a mayor of London that can really focus on London’s interests rather than being tied to Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I think British political parties are dragging towards the extremes. I think there is a gaping hole in the centre.
“I’m obviously not a partisan of Sadiq Khan‘s or indeed of any political party – I think that mayoral roles can be done very well by independents.
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“And I think the danger of mayors being part of political parties is they carry the whole damage and the baggage of those manifestos with them.”
He added: “I would like to be a mayor of London that can really focus on London’s interests rather than being tied to Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson.”
Mr Stewart announced his resignation as a member of the Conservative Party on Friday, before revealing that he would stand in next year’s mayoral race.
Yesterday, the Standard published a letter from Mr Stewart, in which he pledged to make a stand against “mutual insults … lazy habits, half-baked ideas and pointless compromises” of party politics.”
Speaking on Today, the ex-Tory Cabinet minister said he would make something “bigger” of the role of mayor, saying he did not think Sadiq Khan had “made the most” of it.
“I can make the role of mayor something bigger than it’s been in the past – I think there’s huge potential in the role of mayor of London,” he said.
“I think it’s something that we see in cities like New York, I don’t think we’ve begun to see the potential of it.”
He added that Mr Khan’s dreams for London were “not clear”.
Over the coming weeks, the 46-year-old intends to emulate his walk across Afghanistan in 2002 – which the ex-diplomat documented in a travel book – by touring each borough of London on foot as part of a “listening mission” before the start of his mayoral campaign.
The Remain campaigner has been highly critical of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s approach to Brexit, leading to him being sacked as a Tory MP by Mr Johnson last month – along with 20 other colleagues – for voting against a no-deal exit.
