The clown who got serious

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At the top of the grand staircase that leads to Boris Johnson's office corridor in County Hall – once the HQ of the Greater London Council – there is a distinctive name etched in marble on the plaque listing¬ past leaders.

The last entry, below Sir Horace Cutler, Andrew Macintosh¬ and John Wilson, reads "Ken Livingstone 1984-86".

What's more, it turns out that, not only is Johnson based in the building once occupied by his greatest rival in the battle to become London¬ mayor, but his room boasting a panoramic view of the Thames is Livingstone's old office.

When he won the vote to stand as the Conservative candidate last September, many might have assumed that this is about as close as Boris could get to stepping into Ken's shoes.

All that has now changed.

While none of the surveys by mainstream polling organisations have reflected the scale of the 13-point lead to Johnson reported by internet pollster YouGov on 7 April, everyone agrees that the race is too close to call.

And many attribute this to the fact that the loose cannon who shoots from the hip has learned to button his lip.

It is by cutting down the gaffes that Johnson has got to the position he enjoys today, and the man credited with persuading him to stick to the script is Lynton Crosby, the tough Australian political consultant.

He isn't far behind when a cheery Boris bowls into his office for our interview but, after a brief handshake, Crosby is gone. So there's still hope that his charge will revert to type.

One of the most potentially fruitful areas is transport. Who would have thought that the most contentious issue of this election would turn out to be the Mercedes-Benz Citaro?

Johnson's pledge to get rid of the bendy bus – as it is better known – set in train a series of bloopers that saw the cost of the proposal rise from £8m to £100m.

Boris's first error was to assume that the only additional cost would be the salaries of conductors to man the Routemasters. In fact, three conductors working shifts would be required for each bus and, once the capital cost of replacing the bendy buses had been taken into account, the bill topped £100m.

Johnson reckons there's so much fat at City Hall that there will be no problem finding the money.

"It'll be £100m for the buses, but that's against TfL's budget for consultants of £110m," he says. "The publicity budget's £84m. Huge sums are being spent." He adds: "They'll be phased in over time and the bendy buses wouldn't be written off, we would realise some value by selling them on."

When it is pointed out that there will also be development costs and the process of designing a new bus will take time, he argues that Livingstone's new hybrid double-deckers will need to be developed, too.

"There will be a new generation of Routemasters on the streets by the end of my first term," he promises, without committing himself to the full complement of 500.

They will not be running on Venezuelan diesel, however. Johnson says he has no intention of pursuing Livingstone's consultants-for-oil deal with Hugo Chavez: "I think it's quite wrong that the people of Venezuela should subsidise diesel for Londoners when their average income is one tenth of a Londoner's."

The presentation of his Routemaster policy may have been chaotic but Boris has been much more effective elsewhere. Indeed, there are a number of areas in which the Mayor admits to nicking his policies – notably Johnson's idea of a Mayor's Fund for London.

On the congestion charge, Boris has no plans to axe it but he does intend to make it more user-friendly.

"My number one priority is to make it easier to pay," he says. "I'd introduce a system of payment on account to take away the terror and panic of fines if you don't pay within 24 hours. I'd give people longer to pay.

"The other thing is that £180 is one of the most punitive and extortionate fines around. In Stockholm, for example, it's £40 and it's far more effective because the fact of the charge is the deterrent, not how punitive and extortionate it is."

He will also abandon Livingstone's plan to introduce a new charge for owners of 4x4s. "The £25 charge on family cars will only be removing a tiny quantity of emissions," he says, "the equivalent of the amount produced by a large herd of cows, approximately 1,000. If you removed cows from the fields of Uxbridge, you would do more to reduce London's greenhouse emissions."

The other difference between Boris and Ken on the C-charge is that the Conservative candidate is a sceptic when it comes to its extension to Kensington and Chelsea.

"I'd look at getting rid of the western extension by putting it out to consultation," he says. "It would involve some way of making sure people could express their views individually, either electronically or in some other way.

"When Ken introduced it, the figures were four to one against, but he still introduced it. I don't think it's worked very well."

Apart from transport, the other big topic hanging over this election is crime. The Mayor is fond of repeating that murders are down 28 per cent on five years ago, from 220 to 160, and that he reduced crime in general by 5 per cent a year in his last term. But the spate of teenage murders – 27 last year and 12 so far this year – has changed public perceptions.

"The Mayor has failed in his duty to Londoners and it's time for a different approach," says Johnson. "Vehicle theft is down largely because cars are more difficult to steal but, if you talk to people about the real experience they are going through, it's a different story.

"Muggings among 11 to 22- year-olds are up 28 per cent. Crime on buses, incidents of disorder on the Tube – up, up, up. I want to restore¬ order to the spaces the Mayor is responsible for.

"It's not good enough for the Mayor to throw his hands in the air and say, ‘there's nothing I can do'. I know he can't knit together the torn fabric of society but there is a job to be done and it's the job of the Mayor to lead the fightback."

To this end, he intends to put 440 police community support officers on the buses and improve the lives of children by being more supportive of the voluntary sector via the Mayor's Fund and the LDA (London Development Agency).

The mini cab booked to take me to County Hall for this interview started heading for City Hall by mistake. The Conservatives will be hoping that - recent slips in the polls notwithstanding - come 2 May, that could be Boris Johnson's correct address.