Zac Goldsmith mayoral pitch takes shape with help from influential friends

Assisted by the chancellor and the Evening Standard the Tory London mayor candidate his begun building his campaign platform

Did he, perchance, know what was coming? On Monday, two days before chancellor George Osborne produced his spending review, Conservative mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith wrote prominently in the London Evening Standard of discussions he'd been having with senior police officers, Boris Johnson, home secretary Theresa May and the chancellor himself about the need to protect that amorphous law and order construct "the front line".

Transport and housing, he rightly pointed out, are vital issues for Londoners too. Moreover, they are linked. "One unlocks the other," he correctly wrote. "Crossrail 2 alone could facilitate 200,000 new homes by better connecting outer and inner London." That is why, he concluded, "it is essential that TfL's investment programmes are not curtailed."