Member Article

Sol Campbell in bid to replace Boris Johnson as Mayor of London

Sol Campbell has confirmed he will stand for election next year to replace Boris Johnson as Mayor of London.

The former England captain, who officially retired from football in 2012, is expected to appear at a hustings with the rest of the Conservative party’s candidates on 4th July.

Campbell told SunNation: “I’m going in with my eyes wide open. I know I’m not going to be a frontrunner,”

“But I look at people who have been in politics for five, 10, 15 years, and muck up, you see them muck up and think, ’you guys are supposed to be pro!

“People that have gone to Oxbridge, had thousands spent on their education, and I mean they are royally mucking up.”

He added: “I bring something new to the table. This is a whole new road for me, something I can get my teeth into but I just felt it was something I had to do.

“I come from a working class background, it wasn’t easy for me at all, but I worked hard. And now it’s about giving something back.”

Campbell joined the Conservative party following Labour’s highly-criticised mansion tax policy. The former Tottenham and Arsenal defender will face competition from Zac Goldsmith and Stephen Greenhalgh for the nomination, while Labour’s Sadiq Khan and Tessa Jowell battle it out for the Labour party position.

Campbell joined the Conservative party last year after criticising Labour’s proposed introduction of mansion tax. The former Tottenham and Arsenal defender had been in the frame to stand in the general election to replace the retiring Sir Malcolm Rifkind in Kensington before the deputy mayor Lady Victoria Borwick was chosen instead.

Born in Newham, Campbell responded to the question about his decision to leave Spurs to join rivals Arsenal on a free transfer in 2001 and how it could affect his popularity in the north London boroughs: “If we keep thinking about football, we’re not going to do anything. We are dealing with people’s lives here.

“I want to change London for everybody.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .