London mayor grows in gravitas as new poll shows he is UK's most respected politician, even beating the Iron Lady
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Boris Johnson will hope he is now seen as a serious figure who can be entrusted with the nuclear deterrent after a poll showed he is more respected than Margaret Thatcher Photograph: Peter Jordan/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image
Boris Johnson will be familiar with the Peter Sellers film Dr Strangelove.
The film, which famously satirises the dangers of having the wrong finger on the nuclear button, highlights the main charge against the London mayor as he strives to succeed David Cameron. Can a man who has made a career out of playing the buffoon be trusted with Britain's nuclear deterrent?
Downing Street, which was irritated with the media attention lavished on Johnson when he upstaged David Cameron at the Olympics and Paralympics parade, believes the nuclear button is, to mix a metaphor, its trump card. Serious times require serious people, goes the cry from No 10.
But a YouGov poll appears to provide an emphatic answer to the Downing Street charge by saying that Johnson is, by a long margin, the most respected British politician now and in recent years. He is even more respected than Margaret Thatcher, according to the poll for a YouGov- Cambridge conference.
Everyone knows Johnson is popular. But the YouGov poll breaks new ground – and suggests the mayor is growing in gravitas – by showing he is respected. His clever exploitation of the Olympics and the way in which he is differentiating himself from No 10 on a possible third runway at Heathrow is clearly paving dividends.
Johnson's persona as a cheeky outsider who throws rocks at figures in power works wonders in a post which does not carry the major powers and responsibilities vested in a prime minister. If he is to become Tory leader Johnson will have to show he can deal with power (taking charge of Britain's nuclear weapons) and responsibility – annoying voters by levying taxes on them.
Johnson is such a formidable and calculating figure that he may be able to achieve all that while remaining a comic treasure. But he has been able to act the clown because the two signatures themes of his mayoralty – London 2012 and 'Boris Bikes' – have involved exploiting the achievements of others.
Perhaps George Osborne should sign up the only person associated with those two achievements to help him see of a threat from Johnson by depicting the London mayor as a lightweight. Ken Livingstone does, after all, have time on his hands these days.