London: Mayor & More

How Will Ray Lewis Be Replaced?

The mayor's spokesman tells me that Mayor Johnson is "pondering" the question of a successor and has "taken personal control of that agenda for now."

Ray Lewis: More To Come?

From the Guardian:

"While George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, was saying the allegations would be 'fully investigated', Guto Harri, Johnson's spokesman, said a decision to abandon the inquiry - due to start tomorrow under Martin Narey, a former director-general of the Prison Service - had been taken over the weekend. 'He is no longer a deputy mayor so it would not be appropriate to spend taxpayers' money on a lengthy inquiry into his position.'

The church had been planning to present the new information, together with its file of previous allegations of financial impropriety and sexual misconduct, to Narey. Chris Newland, chaplain to the Bishop of Chelmsford, John Gladwin, said: 'We regret that the inquiry has been dropped. There is more to come. When the story made news last week other people came forward. We shall have to consider to whom we should send our file.'"

This is why Lewis may continue to be a problem for the Tories nationally. Ironically, Mayor Johnson might be in a better position to put the affair behind him than "my mate Dave" is. A new, fireproof and less hubristic deputy for young people wouldn't hurt.

Ray Lewis: Narey Inquiry

I'd assumed but have yet to confirm that the Narey inquiry will no longer take place. Thanks to the Troll for spotting this:

"On Friday the mayor said Mr Lewis would be reinstated if he was cleared by an inquiry into the allegations led by former chief prisons inspector Martin Narey. But last night City Hall sources said the inquiry would be dropped. A source said: 'He wants to clear his name and we would like that to happen, but now he has resigned it is not appropriate to spend taxpayers’ money on an inquiry.'”

Lewis would probably now fade from public view were it not for the length of his connections with the Conservative Party. It's a big "but."

UPDATE, 11.54 a.m.: A spokesman for the mayor has just confirmed that Martin Narey has indeed been "stood down."

Ray Lewis: What Did Boris Johnson Know & When? Why Did The Church Not Speak Up Sooner?

From the Sunday Times:

"The [church] spokesman revealed that the church had alerted Johnson, orally and in writing, about the allegations against Lewis in May. Chris Newland, chaplain to the Bishop of Chelmsford, said: 'Lewis’s ministry was restricted because of very serious allegations. If you want to employ someone in a high-profile job, you check with their employers, you take up their references. None of that was done.'....

Days after Johnson appointed Lewis, the Bishop of Barking alerted him to the allegations. 'The Bishop of Barking did speak to the mayor at an event at Millwall football stadium on Whit Sunday,' said Newland. Subsequently the Bishop of Chelmsford wrote to Johnson stating that Lewis “did not have permission to exercise his priesthood in the diocese'."

My emphasis. Does Mayor Johnson remember the bishop speaking to him about Lewis? Did he pay any heed? If not, why not? But there's another issue here. Nick Boles, Johnson's Interim Chief of Staff and a member of Cameron's inner circle, has spotted it:

"In a desperate attempt to ensure that Johnson’s first serious crisis does not undermine Cameron’s own position, Nick Boles, a key member of Cameron’s 'kitchen cabinet' and one of Johnson’s most senior aides, accused church leaders of negligence. He said they had failed to disclose that they had a dossier of accusations made against Lewis while he was a vicar. 'The church sat on it and suddenly decided to bring it into the public [arena] now. Why?' he said."

It's a fair question.

"[T]he Tories hit back, accusing the church of burying not only the file of complaints against Lewis but also the warning given to Johnson. 'It was in about paragraph 10 of a very long letter about a global day of prayer,' Boles said."

I've been told "about paragraph six," but I'm not quibbling.

“'We were relying on the fact that [Lewis] had got Criminal Records Bureau checks and was a charity founder and had been a member of the Church of England. The church did nothing to make the Criminal Records Bureau aware of [the allegations].'

Johnson’s official spokesman went further, criticising the way the church had handled the affair. 'If they have a file of allegations of the nature they describe, why did they sit on it for 12 years?' he said. 'They never informed Ray. They never even told him they had decided to discipline him. We are inviting you to consider whether natural justice has [been] applied.”

Well, according to today's Observer, Newland - who's been one busy chaplain lately - Lewis did know he'd been disciplined (though the spokesman wouldn't have know about that when he spoke to the Sunday Times). But while I remain amazed that no Tory picked up or acting on concerns that have surrounded Lewis for years, I can see why he and Boles might be fed up with the church for keeping quiet. After all, Johnson's party has been publicly snuggling up to Lewis since 2005. Full Sunday Times story here.

Ray Lewis: It Gets Worse For Boris & Dave

From The Observer:

"The mayor's office [last week] repeatedly insisted that Lewis was not aware of allegations of financial and sexual misconduct made against him by parishioners and had not even been told by the Church of England that he was disbarred from holding office in 1999...But that defence was dramatically undermined last night when church sources said Lewis actually appealed against the revoking of his licence in 2000, when he returned to Britain after working overseas.

Remember Lewis at Thursday's press conference, adamant that he'd known nothing of these things?

"The Rev Chris Newlands, chaplain to the Bishop of Chelmsford, who was responsible for overseeing Lewis's parish, said: 'When Mr Lewis came back from Guyana to England, he knew his licence had been revoked. The licence had been revoked because he was doing things he shouldn't have been doing. He asked for permission to preach again in 2000, but it wasn't granted.'"

Staggering.

"Lewis is also said to have been told that the Church was concerned about his financial activities, both in Britain and Grenada, during pastoral meetings with church representatives in Grenada in 1999. He left for Guyana the next year. A spokesman for Johnson said last night that Lewis had promised the mayor he was not aware of the allegations from parishioners until last week. Told that he had actually appealed against his disbarment, the spokesman said: 'If that is the case, that is not consistent with what he told us. It is very disappointing, because Boris was prepared to give Ray the benefit of the doubt and if he has misled us then he has let us down.'"

Boris, you've been had. So has Cameron. And your party's claims to know best about fixing the social fabric have taken a blow. Not that the chief architect of its 'caring' pitch has faced reality.

"The former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith rode to Lewis's defence last night, attacking what he called a 'disgusting' media campaign against a good man. 'I think you are going to crush a good man who has done some fantastic work, who has rescued more kids than anyone who writes stories will ever do in their lives,' he said. 'I am disgusted with the manhunt that's gone on. He is not a politician; he came in because Boris asked him to sort out street gangs. Everybody has a past.'"

Some Tories never learn. Still, one at least is starting to catch on.

"But other senior Tories were distancing themselves. A spokesman for Francis Maude, who sits on the board of trustees of Lewis's Eastside Young Leaders Academy - an after-school facility for disafffected teenagers - said he had not known about the allegations in Lewis's past and that Maude's involvement with the academy had been 'decreasing' lately."

Maude, you'll recall, is on the board of Lewis's "respect" academy. Steve Norris, Boris ally and appointee, chairs it. How can they not resign from it? The most amazing thing about the Tories' four year embrace of Lewis is that none of the mutterings about him seem to have reached their ears. Any one of these should have set alarm bells ringing. And if they did hear any of the stories I've been hearing for the past two months and simply dismissed them as politically-motivated, informed by "political correctness" or just because they didn't want to hear, then they need shooting. Full Observer story here.

Er, Pardon?

Can anyone tell me what Rod Liddle is on about?

After Ray Lewis...

As the government crows over the London "disarray," a press release arrives from City Hall:

"The Deputy Mayor of London for Policing has moved to reassure Londoners that the work to combat knife crime in London will continue despite the resignation of Ray Lewis, the former Deputy Mayor for young people.

Kit Malthouse, the Deputy Mayor for Policing, said: 'The real story in London this weekend is not Ray Lewis, it is the spate of deadly knife attacks on young people in the capital. Ray knew this and that is why he took the decision to resign. He did not want unproven allegations about his past to distract from the work that is finally happening to tackle knife crime in the capital...

That is the story Londoners care about and that is the story this administration cares about. I want to reassure young people, their parents and everyone living in London that our commitment to fighting knife culture is undimmed. The Mayor, supported by his advisors, will continue to push forward with work to banish blades from our city."

Damage limitation effort ends here.

James Cleverly AM On Ray Lewis

He writes:

"This is a very sad thing to have happened. Ray has transformed the lives of many young people for the better, his record is self evident, however in the goldfish bowl of British politics it isn't worth trying to pull the wool."

So true, though not everyone is as impressed by Lewis's record.

Ray Lewis: What The Papers Are Saying

I'm not sure I deserve my shared byline on the Guardian's story, given that Matthew Taylor assembled it in the office at the end of an exhausting day while I was here at home making a mess of trying to help him and rustle up a chicken stir-fry at the same. I'm honoured, though: Matthew's a class act.

I think we're both pretty happy with our efforts on the Lewis story. Throughout, there have been some quite fine judgments to make about what to include in our pieces and what to leave out. We've chosen not to publish certain extremely solid facts about Lewis's past because making them public might have invited readers to draw conclusions about him that could be unjustifiably damaging or plain false. There are also many allegations about him that we've steered well clear of because they are strongly contested and unproven.

Predictably, some commenters at Cif and the Politics blog have characterised our coverage as a "smear" campaign. If only they knew. Maybe they'd like to compare the Mail's Lewis story or the Telegraph's with ours and think again.

At Guardian Politics: Lewis Resigns

Is it bedtime yet?

Even as suspicions were growing that Ray Lewis was not all he seemed Boris Johnson told Andrew Marr last month that his deputy for young people was “one of the reasons I became so determined to become mayor. He just inspired me.” The blond Etonian’s enthusiasm for the black east Londoner and his “respect school” for wayward schoolboys in the Borough of Newham had been a constant theme of his election campaign. Lewis was Johnson’s first appointment to his City Hall team and seemed a perfect lieutenant for a mayor held (unfairly) by some to be racist and routinely ridiculed as a toff. Lewis’s resignation earlier this evening will come as a hammer blow.