London Mayor Boris Johnson held a press conference this afternoon, announcing that he is to hold an inquiry into his newly appointed Deputy Mayor, Ray Lewis, over allegations of sexual misconduct.
BBC London learned Mr Lewis, who has responsibility for youth, was barred from working in the Church of England after the allegations were made when he was vicar at a church in east London a decade ago.
Mr Lewis was placed on the Church of England’s Lambeth and Bishopsthorpe Register – the so-called Lambeth List – in 1999.
People on the list are prevented from public ministry and preaching.
UPDATE: Politics.co.uk has a good summary of the allegations against Ray Lewis.
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3 Comments
I think Channel Four will be revealing more on their news tonight about this.
Jon Snow and Katie Razzall were asking lots of questions at a press conference held just now in City Hall.
The legislation that enacted the mayor of London and assembly, does not allow anyone but a member of the London Assembly to be appointed deputy mayor.
You are of course right Michael. But that hasn’t been seen to worry Boris. At last count he has 4 Deputies, with only one – Richard Barnes – being an actual Assembly Member. It was pointed out, both privately and publicly, to Boris and his team in the week after the election that there was legislation around this, and other areas of the operation of the Greater London Authority, but it quickly became apparent that no-one in the Mayor’s office had any real understanding of what the Greater London Authority Acts actually said, and indeed what were the actual powers of the Mayor.
After yesterday’s revelations however Boris may be regretting his decision not to be better informed. It would have been far better for these Deputies to be called “Policy Advisors”. If Boris had done so, and asked them to fill in an application form or similar, then he may have avoided the embarrassment that both Ray Lewis and James McGrath are causing his administration.
And as an aside after a quick trawl round the Tory blogs this morning it amazes me that not one seems to have referred to this whole matter. Can you imagine what the blogosphere would be like if this matter had been put out there by the media concerning one of the previous Mayor’s advisors? I wait to see how the Standard reports the matter….