Festus Akinbusoye has entered the Conservative race for London Mayor, setting up a contest with Sir James Cleverly for the party’s 2028 nomination. The former Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner announced the move on GB News and in interviews published on 1 September 2026. Guido Fawkes flagged it the same morning with the headline “Cleverly’s Challenger.” Akinbusoye, now a Westminster City councillor, is pitching himself as the outsider the Tories need after more than

Kemi Badenoch completed a significant Shadow Cabinet reshuffle on 31 August 2026, positioning the Conservatives for what she described as a shift “from recovery to preparation for government.” The changes came after James Cleverly resigned as Shadow Housing Secretary to pursue the Conservative nomination for the 2028 London mayoral election, and ahead of the party conference in October. The move also followed Andy Burnham’s appointment as Prime Minister in July 2026 after Kei

The Conservative Party has lost two of its most senior remaining figures from Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet in the space of a few days, deepening the sense of flux around a party still struggling to recover from its 2024 election collapse. On 29 August, Sir James Cleverly resigned as shadow housing secretary to pursue the Conservative nomination for Mayor of London in 2028. The former home secretary and foreign secretary said he needed to be free to campaign fully on London’