AN opportunity has opened up for London Mayor Boris Johnson to make a Commons return after the sitting MP in a Tory safe seat announced he will not be standing at the next General Election.
Mr Johnson has been linked with several constituencies amid growing rumours he will return to Westminster.
His chances of being elected at next May's poll will have been boosted by the news that Sir John Randall is not seeking re-election in Uxbridge & South Ruislip.
Sir John, who has a majority of 11,216, told his constituency party it has been a "privilege and honour" to represent the Middlesex seat for the past 17 years.
Mr Johnson - whose term runs to 2016 but would be allowed to continue at City Hall at the same time as serving as an MP - has been linked with a series of safe Conservative seats. But the former MP for Henley in Oxfordshire has continually ducked demands to declare his intent to stand in the 2015 general election or in a by-election before then, despite Prime Minister David Cameron backing his return to Parliament.
The Tory leader has described his fellow Old Etonian, among the favourites to succeed him as Conservative leader, as a star striker missing from his team.
Sir John stepped down as deputy chief whip in October after a long career in the Tory whips office and Mr Cameron said he "could not have wished for a more loyal, discreet, patient, trustworthy colleague" and described him as a "rock" for the party.
However, sources close to Mr Johnson described suggestions he could seek to fight the constituency next year as "nothing more than speculation and rumour around another vacant seat" and said he was "getting on with the job of mayor".
The mayor's official spokesman said: "The mayor is focused on one thing: delivering on his second- term commitments for London - the continued creation of jobs and growth, the provision of new housing to meet growing demand, and the further reduction of crime in the city."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article