New beginnings...

Former Bexley leader Ian Clement is the man Boris Johnson has picked to lead his relationships with London boroughs. Could this be the start of a beautiful friendship? The early signs are good, but just don't call him the enforcer. Ian Mitchell reports.

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Working in a building constructed almost entirely from glass, you'd have to consider yourself unlucky not to get a desk near a window.

Yet, not only is Ian Clement's new office on the eighth floor of City Hall not near a window, it's also pretty cramped, even by public sector standards. Not that the functional surroundings bother him. The man who resigned as leader of Bexley council to take up the reins as Mayor Johnson's deputy mayor for government relations seems about as unconcerned with the fripperies of office as it is possible to be.

A former soldier in the Territorial Army ("not anymore, too old, too fat, not enough time"), Ian Clement has been described as the new Mayor's 'enforcer'. It's not a description he recognises, either of himself or his new role.

"I'm here to advise, assist and at times represent the Mayor of London in his relationships with national, regional and local government in the UK and, crucially, with the London boroughs", he says. "I am not an 'enforcer', what can I do to a borough leader? They are leaders in their own right. I don't believe anybody is, or should be, worried bout me."

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