Boris Johnson has revealed the inspiration behind his ambition to run London - Larry Vaughan, the mayor in the film Jaws who demanded the beaches stay open despite the ominous presence of a great white shark.
Just 24 hours after entering the race to become the Tory candidate in the mayoral elections next year, it emerged that Mr Johnson had praised Mayor Vaughan's "laissez faire" approach to public safety on sevaeral occasions.
"The real hero of Jaws is the mayor," Mr Johnson said last year in an after dinner speech at Lloyd's of London.
"A gigantic fish is eating all your constituents and he decides to keep the beaches open. OK, in that instance he was actually wrong. But in principle, we need more politicians like the mayor - we are often the only obstacle against all the nonsense which is really a massive conspiracy against the taxpayer."
Naturally Boris was speaking tongue firmly in cheek but this has not stopped the left wing press rushing to attack him for irresponsible views. Wee- way to go Boris. Let's get this party started.
Mr Johnson's views emerged as supporters rushed to sign up to his campaign yesterday. By mid afternoon, nearly 2,000 pledges of support had been received by the backboris.com website.
Thousands more have signed up on Facebook, the internet social network, though Mr Johnson cannot launch a formal campaign until he has secured the Conservative nomination.
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