Rory Stewart pulls out of London mayoral race
Independent mayoral candidate Rory Stewart has pulled out of the race for City Hall.
The contest has been delayed for a year until 2021 due to the Covid-19 outbreak and Stewart, a former Tory cabinet minister, was unwilling to ask his unpaid staff to work a further year.
“London remains the greatest city on earth,”Stewart said in a video posted on Twitter. “It would have been the greatest privilege of my life to be the mayor of London.”
In a statement, Stewart said: “It is with sadness that I have decided not to run in the postponed London mayoral election next year.”
Stewart said the postponement of the elections until next year because of the coronavirus pandemic made continuing his candidacy difficult.
“While the considerable challenges of running as an independent were manageable for a normal race, they are forbidding for an extended and delayed election”.
Former prisons minister Rory Stewart ran for the Conservative Party leadership last year on a soft Brexit ticket, attracting support from former ministers such as Ken Clarke and David Gauke.
After defeat in that race he made the surprise announcement in October that he would not contest the next General Election and would instead stand as an independent in the London mayoral race.
Stewart was also an outsider in that race, behind Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan and Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey.
The news was first reported by the Evening Standard.