Boris Johnson: At the moment I don’t want to be Prime Minister |

Wednesday 8th August 2012 | 08:30

Boris Johnson: At the moment I don’t want to be Prime Minister

08:30
- 08/08/12
- Boris Johnson, Mayor of London
- Daybreak, ITV

Boris Johnson said he wanted to put an end to rumours that he wanted to be Prime Minister, and argued it was little more than a “silly season story.”

“Of course not, because I’ve got four years of Mayor of London ahead of me. Perhaps this is the moment to knock this once and for all on the head. How can I issue, you know, a denial strong enough to stop this silly season story?

“It’s a silly season story. Everybody knows that... I’m Mayor of London, and my cup runs over, and plus – after this, you know, by Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we’ve got to be honest – we’ve got the Paralympics, they’re going to be fantastic too, that’s going to be a really great moment for London.”

Inconceivable

In response to the suggestion that few people expected him to become Mayor of London before his successful campaign, Mr Johnson accepted this fact, but reiterated his rejection of the speculation.

“I think the chances of me being Prime Minister... I think it inconceivable I’m going to be Prime Minister. At the moment I certainly don’t want to be Prime Minister.

“The chances of that happening are infinitesimally remote.”

Carlton club

He said he was unaware of rumours that members of the Conservative Carlton club were touting him as the next leader of the party, and said his focus was on the Olympics and Paralympics.

“I haven’t been to the Carlton club for a very long time, but I’ve got to go there – I’ll go there and see. But in the meantime what I want to do is to try to harness the momentum of the Olympics, which is a fantastic, fantastic thing, and see if we can take London forward.”

Mr Johnson also joked that nobody would want to elect the man who had been stuck in a zip wire in Victoria Park in the lead-up to the Olympics.

“How on earth could you elect that guy? How could anybody elect a prat who gets stuck in a zip wire? I’ll tell you what happened. I was trying to publicise our live site in Victoria Park, which is a wonderful place by the way, and after I’d got up – which was quite scary... it was heroic. After I got stuck on that thing we did have a big increase in the number of visitors, so it wasn’t totally fatuous, contrary to appearances.”