The nomination of Brian Paddick yesterday ensures that whatever happens next May the Mayor of London will be a populist maverick with a controversial past and a thirst for self-publicity.

As if a clash between Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson were not enthralling enough, the Liberal Democrats added to the fun by endorsing the former Met police chief once known as “the Cannabis Cop”. With signs of Tory irritation over the Johnson campaign already emerging and fears among senior Liberal Democrats over Mr Paddick’s forthcoming “tell-all” life story, the curtain has gone up on what promises to be the most entertaining political carnival for years.

Yesterday Mr Paddick called for the resignation of his former boss, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, despite saying days previously that he had promised Sir Ian that he would not do so. While some may decry the Lib Dem candidate’s opportunism, David Cameron’s office will have registered Mr Paddick’s intervention with chagrin. Nothing has distilled the Tory leader’s doubts about his London mayoral candidate quite like Mr Johnson’s failure to exploit the fallout over the Stockwell shooting.

Mr Livingstone has left himself exposed by mounting a staunch defence of Sir Ian, but Mr Johnson has been all but mute. He gave a single quote on the day of the prosecution, saying that the commissioner should consider his position. Mr Cameron, addressing a function on Monday, made fun of his candidate saying: “Inside Boris there is a serious, ambitious politician fighting to get out.” The gag, while seemingly affectionate, was laced with menace.

Even donors to Mr Johnson’s campaign – he has so far registered £80,000 – express dismay privately at the hush that has settled over his mayoral effort. Other critics noted that the first public act of Mr Johnson’s campaign office on moving into new accommodation was to dispatch invitations to a Christmas party.

It is not denied that there was a meeting between Mr Johnson and George Osborne, the Tories’ campaign supremo, recently. It is thought that Mr Osborne pressed Boris to step up a gear and attempted to impose James McGrath, a Conservative Central Office staffer, to help to inject urgency. Nor is it denied that the Tory candidate has spent much of his time on the filming of a BBC documentary on London’s cultural heritage.

What Mr Johnson denies vehemently is that his failure to be more involved in what he calls the “scalp-hunt-ing” of Sir Ian is linked to his filming. He said that he had agreed long ago with David Davis that he would leave the field clear for the Shadow Home Secretary on the question of Sir Ian’s future. He does now think, he added, that Sir Ian’s position is untenable.

Mr Livingstone, meanwhile, has quietly recruited some of those who helped to run Jon Cruddas’s campaign to be deputy leader of the Labour Party. Those familiar with some of the thinking of the Livingstone campaign report that he plans to make attacks on Mr Johnson’s privileged background a principal theme. For now, though, the negative attacks are being kept under wraps. All three camps expect to mount positive campaigns in January and profess to want to concentrate on policy not personality.

Ken Livingstone

Full name Kenneth Robert Livingstone
Born June 17, 1945, Lambeth, South London
Parents Ethel Ada, a professional dancer, and Robert Moffat Livingstone, a ship's master in the Merchant Navy
Educated Tulse Hill Comprehensive, Philippa Fawcett College of Education
Typical gaffe “I just long for the day when I wake up and find the Saudi Royal Family swinging from lampposts,” April 2004
Career high Overcoming Tony Blair’s opposition to become Labour’s first mayoral candidate and triumphing in 2000
Career low Suspended from City Hall for comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard
Recreation Breeding newts

Boris Johnson

Full name Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson
Born June 19, 1964, New York, US
Parents Charlotte Fawcett Wahl and Stanley Johnson (writer)
Educated Eton (King's Scholar), Balliol College, Oxford (President of the Union)
Typical gaffes “An inverted pyramid of piffle,” his denial of his affair with Petronella Wyatt. Publishing an editorial on Liverpudlians that decried their “deeply unattractive psyche" after the murder of Kenneth Bigley.
Career low Fired from the Tory front bench when reports of affair were shown to be true
Career high Overcoming the doubts of David Cameron to replace Nicholas Boles as his favourite candidate for London mayor earlier this year
Recreations Cycling

Brian Paddick

Full name Brian Leonard Paddick
Born April 24, 1958 in Balham, South London
Parents Anthony Henry J. Paddick (plastics salesman) and Evelyn Perken (building society secretary)
Educated Bec School, Tooting Bec; Sutton Manor High School; Queen's College, Oxford; University of Warwick; Cambridge Typical gaffe “The concept of anarchism has always appealed” (although he added that he was not sure everyone would behave well if there were no laws”)
Career high Being made Borough Commander of Lambeth aged only 42, fufilling an ambition to police Brixton after being a sergeant during the riots in 1981
Career low Suspended after the false allegation that he had smoked cannabis

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