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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Well the London Mayoral election is just over a month away and the current mayor, Boris Johnson, is fairly confident about his chances but nationally the Conservative party are getting a bit of a beating in the polls, as you heard there amidst stories of donor dinners, pasty protests and foolish talk about hoarding fuel. So can Boris win another four years or will he be dragged down by this own party. In a moment I’ll be speaking to the man himself as you can see out in the sun there in south west London but also watching the discussion today are our Twitter commentators, they are James Kirkup, deputy political editor for the Telegraph, Oliver Wright, Whitehall editor for the Independent and Isabelle Hardman from Politics Home. They provide their reactions via Twitter and you can read as we talk those on the side panels and you can follow on our website as well, skynew.com/politics and you can join in of course, feel free, using the hashtag #murnaghan. Now let’s say a very good morning to the Mayor himself, Boris Johnson. Mr Johnson, good morning to you.

BORIS JOHNSON: Good morning, Dermot.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: On this issue of the Conservative party nationally do you feel that your colleagues in Westminster are bungling things a bit for you? They have managed to foster the impression in the last couple of weeks, haven’t they, that your party is run by a bunch of Tory toffs who are out of touch.

BORIS JOHNSON: Well you know Dermot, a lot of people over the last few … a lot of journalists over the last few days have said to me is the Mayoral campaign going to be affected by what’s going on at national level whether it’s Galloway winning in Bradford West or the impending fuel protests or anything else and actually I have been walking around over the last few days and weeks talking to people and that is not what they are bringing up with me. What they want to talk about is what our plans are for taking London forward, continuing to deliver what I want to do, another four years of cost effective responsible government, cutting waste, cutting council tax, taking the savings that we’ve got and investing it in great schemes to take this city forward. We think that by investing in transport infrastructure in particular and housing we can do another 200,000 jobs over the next four years. We’ve got plans that we’ve set out that will enable us to deliver it but what I think people don’t want to see is a return to the kind of wasteful approach to government finance that you saw under Labour and indeed under my predecessor Ken Livingstone when money was hosed away on all sorts of nonsense with no particular economic benefit.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Okay but electors are electors whether they are in London or elsewhere and nationally people are feeling that the Conservative party is out of touch. Now you amongst other things campaigned for that cut in the very highest rate of income tax at 50p, you are Eton educated and you’re a millionaire and you’re a senior Conservative.

BORIS JOHNSON: Well I think what people want to hear from me, with the greatest … actually I think voters don’t much care where people have come from, what they want to know is what they’re going to do to help them and that’s why actually here in London they are interested in bearing down on council tax, we’ve cut it in real terms by 16% compared to the previous fellow who wacked it up by £964 in Band D and spent all that money coming in to City Hall, we’ve now seen spent on some completely ludicrous antics, flying off to see Fidel Castro or whoever it happened to be, things that didn’t benefit Londoners. What they want to hear is that we are going to continue 100% guaranteed benefits that Londoners get like the 24 hour Freedom Pass for everybody over 60 and if I am re-elected on May 3rd that will be available to everybody over 60 in this city. That’s a massive benefit for people of all incomes.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Indeed. We are of course speaking, as you know, to a national and international audience here, not just to people in London but from what you’re saying, Mr Johnson, Mr Mayor, is that you feel you are divorced from the Conservative party nationally, that none of that is damaging you, the fact that they seem to have lost the public’s ear and in particular doing things like this donorgate scandal, dining privately with the Prime Minister with people who give a lot of money to the Conservative party. I mean it is something that you would not do isn’t it?

BORIS JOHNSON: I think obviously to my shame and humiliation, I have never been invited to have dinner at Chequers obviously but what I would say is I believe I am in a better position than any other candidate at this election to get a good deal from government and the critical thing is now, in tough times, is to get the finance London needs to do the things its people want to see: making our streets safer, and one thing that we achieved in recent months was to get another 90 million from the Treasury which has been absolutely indispensable in getting a thousand more officers out on the streets of London than there were when I was elected. That has been very tough to achieve against the background of a very difficult economic climate and I think it shows the argument for having somebody – and whatever you might say, Dermot, about the difficulties the government is going through, they do hold the purse strings for the national Exchequer and it’s vital that you have somebody who is able to go in there and make the case for our city.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: But flowing from that, is no one talking to you while you are on the stump during this campaign about the price of hot pies, about the availability of petrol, about the cut in top rate tax and about the rich people’s access to the Prime Minister and others?

BORIS JOHNSON: No. Actually no, seriously, what they want to know is what’s going to happen to improve their Tube journey and what’s going to happen to make their transport more reliable and one of the things I’m able to explain is by our programme of investment I am absolutely convinced that we can do some fantastic things over the next four years. We are about to take an historic decision in London about automating the Tube network. We can put in effectively driverless trains, it doesn’t mean there won’t be anybody on the train at all who will be responsible for the passengers, there will be train captains but there won’t be an old fashioned driver sitting in the cab in the way that you do at the moment and that decision needs to be taken in the next four years. We need to pave the way for a greatly improved automated modernised system and of course that will provoke the wrath of some of the more old fashioned union barons and they will say that that isn’t the right way forward and you have got to keep the drivers in the cabs. I think it would be better to go in the way the DLR works and to start and indeed many international Metro systems now like Singapore and other cities around the world, indeed Line One of the Paris Metro is going in this direction – it’s time we in London took advantage of new technology to improve our system and to expand the capacity of the Tube network. That is the kind of thing genuinely that people are raising with me. What can I do to make their Tube journeys more comfortable? That’s one of the things we’ll be moving forward.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: I mean on that point, no doubt your read, you are an avid reader I suspect of the Economist magazine and on your campaign commented this week that ‘Mr Johnson’s campaign has be cautious to the point of turgidity’ and points out things such as talking about transport, yes, important but where’s the big vision?

BORIS JOHNSON: Well I think that what Londoners want to see is us investing and indeed the whole of the UK because the whole of the UK depends on the London economy Dermot. This is the powerhouse of the UK economy and to make that powerhouse deliver for the whole of Britain you need to invest in transport infrastructure. We need a modernised Tube system, we need an effective bus network, we need to keep building new river crossings as I propose and indeed as the Treasury has guaranteed and we need to take this city forward. Lengthen London’s lead as the number one city in the world to live in, to invest in. The world capital of finance, culture, art and …. I think that is the future of this city.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: But that charge from the economist that it’s turgid, are you not saying out loud well look, I want to get control of schools, I want to have taxation powers, I really want to make this everything that you’ve said there?

BORIS JOHNSON: I do and as you’ll be seeing in the course of the next few weeks I think there is much more room for the mayor to be given a strategic role, particularly in the quality of education, the quality of literacy in this city and we’ll be campaigning very much for that. I also think, by the way, that given the huge quantities of tax that London exports to the rest of the country, there should be more accountability there and we should have a better sense in this city of the huge sums that are raised here in London and I would like to see more of it frankly spent here in London and yes, I will be campaigning for that. What I want to stress is what I think is good for London is good for the UK. If we can continue to get investment in making our streets safer, continuing to bring crime down – we brought it down by 11% already, crime is massively down on public transport, if we can continue to make London a more attractive place to live and put in transport infrastructure investment, you’ll not only create 200,.000 jobs but you’ll make London the place that people want to live in …

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Point taken but on the infrastructure …

BORIS JOHNSON: And … and you’ll be able to narrow the gap between rich and poor.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Point taken on that but on transport infrastructure, there is the issue of the third runway. I’ve just been talking to the chief executive of Virgin Atlantic and …

BORIS JOHNSON: And I don't know why the Economist says it’s turgid.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: … you oppose a third runway at Heathrow, well all those in the aviation industry say it’s damaging our economy and Boris island, or whatever it would be called, is years, decades away even if it happened.

BORIS JOHNSON: I think aviation tycoons and people involved in the aviation, airline industry should actually pay tribute to us in City Hall for the way we’ve moved the argument on, Dermot. Don’t forget where we were, it was no more runways anywhere ever in the south east. I think by some successful campaigning we’ve moved the government off that position. What I don't think is credible or successful is to argue for a new runway at Heathrow due to the particular congestion in West London ….

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Where would you put one?

BORIS JOHNSON: … and that’s why I very much support what Justine Greening is doing having a proper consultation now about all the options. You can look all around the perimeter of London, you can look at all the areas where extra capacity could be introduced and of course there is huge potential there in the Thames Estuary. I am not necessarily looking for …

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: So if it’s not a new airport, not a new runway at Heathrow, where would you like to see one? Which of the other airports?

BORIS JOHNSON: I’m sorry, say that again?

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: If it’s not a brand new airport, if it’s not a third runway at Heathrow, where else would you like to see another runway? You seem to be saying that we shouldn’t limit capacity altogether.

BORIS JOHNSON: Yes, that is something obviously Justine Greening’s review will have to look at. We will be as supportive as we can and actually, as most people will appreciate, most of these potential runways aren’t within the Greater London area and really I’d have to be as supportive and co-operative as I can but that would be a decision effectively for her.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Can I just ask you, one thing, you said that nobody is talking to you about pasties and top rate tax, I’m sure one thing people have been talking to you about during the course of this week is the availability of petrol in London. Do you think your Conservative colleague Francis Maude was right to tell people to go round hoarding it?

BORIS JOHNSON: Well I think the most important thing about the impending petrol strike is that it should be knocked on the head and all those who take their funding from UNITE and there are many politicians on the Labour benches, indeed the Labour leader Ed Miliband who is heavily funded by UNITE I understand, they should man up, have some gumption and tell the tanker drivers not to strike. I don't think it’s conceivably in the economic interests of the city or this country right now to have a tanker strike and I am delighted that it’s not going ahead over Easter, I want to see it postponed sine die, I want it postponed altogether.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: As you say, it hasn’t gone away, the threat of it. Talks taking place again tomorrow, seven days’ notice so it could happen next week in actual fact, what would your advice as Mayor of London be to drivers in London? Stock up or not, yes or no?

BORIS JOHNSON: Well look, what I want to see happen, let’s be absolutely clear, is obviously TFL Transport for London, all the bodies, the London Emergency and Fire Authority, all the bodies for which I’m responsible, have taken steps and are regularly meeting, will be meeting again tomorrow to review what preparations London might need to make but my strong view, Dermot, is the number one priority for the country is for everybody who has any kind of relationship with the UNITE union, financial or otherwise, is to get on the blower to them and say knock this thing on the head or do a deal, let’s hope very much that the tanker drivers can do a deal with their companies and obviate this, I think, totally pointless and potentially damaging strike. That’s what I would like to see.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: So yes or no, stock up or not?

BORIS JOHNSON: Well as I say, Transport for London is making and has made the preparations that are necessary for us and I think there has been quite enough advice about that point already in the press. What I need to get across is that I think this strike is unnecessary, that there is an opportunity to forestall it and what I want to see now, I don’t want to see people panicking, I just want to see the tanker drivers and their companies doing a deal and political pressure can be brought to bear to accomplish that.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Okay, have you got a few jerry cans in the garage?

BORIS JOHNSON: Dermot, I can tell you with absolute cast iron faithfulness this is not, I must have shaken about 500 hands yesterday, probably more, in the course of eight walkabouts in the streets of London, I am about to go off into Richmond, Kingston, heaven knows where this afternoon, I do not believe, I didn’t get a single question about jerry cans yesterday from members of the public. What they want to know is what we are doing to improve their lives in London, to fight crime, improve the quality of life and bear down on their council tax. Those are legitimate questions from the people of London to me.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Okay Mr Johnson, thank you very much indeed.

BORIS JOHNSON: Thank you.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, and we will of course be talking to all the leading candidates in that mayoral race during the course of the next few weeks. There is a list of all seven candidates standing in the elections on our website, that is skynews.com.