Johnson on the job as new London mayor
LONDON (AFP) — Boris Johnson started his first day Monday as London mayor vowing to "crack on" with the job, as Prime Minister Gordon Brown reeled from a voter backlash.
Conservative lawmaker Johnson, an eccentric, gaffe-prone figure who ousted Labour Party mayor Ken Livingstone after his eight years in charge of the British capital, officially took over at midnight.
The 43-year-old said it was time to "get down to business" and began a series of interviews to pick the policy advisors who will help him run London's 11-billion-pound (14-billion-euro, 22-billon-dollar) annual budget.
Brown was left reeling after his governing Labour Party was thrashed by the main opposition Conservatives in Thursday's polls in England and Wales, their worst local election performance in 40 years.
Johnson vowed: "I have instructed members of my team to crack on with implementing our manifesto pledges as soon as we are physically able to do so.
"I will work night and day to deliver that change in London. A tireless approach is what Londoners demand and I will step up to that challenge. It is now time to get down to business."
Johnson met the commissioners of London's police, fire and transport services on Saturday and spelled out his expectations of them.
"My initial meeting with the commissioners went very well and I am encouraged that they have already put some thought into how they intend to deliver the changes that London so badly deserves," the mayor said.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was set to visit Johnson on Friday, newspapers said, with the new London mayor reportedly keen on adapting some of Bloomberg's policies.
"Michael Bloomberg is trying to be very helpful by giving us lots of advice, including advice on the pitfalls," a Johnson aide told The Guardian daily.
Topping Johnson's priority list is banning the drinking of alcohol on London's Underground train network, bringing in 440 more transport police support officers, stripping free travel from anti-social youths and increasing community engagement.
The new mayor spent Monday confirming his first appointments.
They were to be announced Tuesday, when Johnson will also address City Hall staff -- some of whom could face the sack under his plans to reign in bureaucracy and expenditure.
Meanwhile Brown was holed up at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat just outside London, chewing over the poll fall-out and the reaction to the grilling he received during a round of television interviews Sunday.
He is expected to ditch a series of controversial domestic policies in a bid to win over the general public, not to mention disgruntled Labour backbenchers fearing for their jobs come the next general election, due by May 2010.
Tony Lloyd, chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party of all the party's lawmakers, said only those members of parliament with "personal malice" or "personality defects" wanted Brown deposed.
"This is quite a complicated prime minister who hasn't always set out his vision for the future," he told BBC radio.
"What it has meant is that we have heard the relatively simple attack message from our political opponents. The government hasn't got its message through."
British newspapers said it was too early to write Brown off, stressing that he could undo the damage.
"At least he has time on his side -- and the country's mood has rarely been so changeable," said The Sun tabloid. "Things look bleak. But he cannot be written off."
