Has Boris Johonson chosen polling day to bury bad news?

Curious timing for the story in today’s Times saying that Boris Johnson wouldn’t, after all, quit as an MP if he is elected Mayor of London.

Given all the criticisms made of him during the campaign about whether he’s really got what it takes to do the hard graft of being London Mayor, admitting that you’d only do it part time would be most unfortunate. But if you are going to admit it, trying to bury the news on polling day would be the way to go – you get off the hook of having to stand down as an MP but minimise the changes for attacks on you as only being a part-timer who isn’t really that interested in the job.

The media are normally very reluctant to run anything other than fairly anodyne “today is polling day” stories once the first round of morning media coverage is over. It’ll be interesting to see whether they therefore let this story pass or whether they sit up and examine what looks like a rather cynical attempt to bury bad news.