Rory Stewart abandons bid to become next Mayor of London

Former Conservative minister Rory Stewart today quit the race to become London Mayor after the election was delayed for a year by the coronavirus pandemic.

The 47-year-old was due to stand as an independent candidate, but his withdrawal increases the chances of incumbent Sadiq Khan being re-elected for a second term.

Mr Stewart said today that he made the ‘agonising decision’ to drop out after it became impossible to continue with an army of unpaid volunteers for another year.

He added that his hopes were slim against Labour and Conservative ‘machines’ with hundreds of canvassers and far bigger budgets for leaflets and advertising.

On the eve of what would have been polling day, Mr Stewart tweeted: ‘I have decided that I will not be standing again for Mayor in the now delayed 2021 election.

‘It’s been a great privilege to work with so many amazing people with such passion and vision for London. Thank you very much again from the bottom of my heart.’

He told the London Evening Standard that an independent campaign ‘needs to be a sort of quite quick insurgency where you really build excitement over a few months’.

However, he added that a hopeful candidate like him ‘can’t beat these huge machines if you’re pushed into a nearly two-year campaign’.

Mr Stewart had been in third place on 13 per cent, behind Mr Khan and Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey, according to the most recent poll revealed in March.

He had only launched his campaign last October and was expected to be more of a threat to Mr Khan if he made it through to the second round of voting.

In March, the mayoral run and other local elections across England were delayed until next year as the country readied itself to go into lockdown due to the crisis.