Lord Archer claimed a "historic first-round" victory in his attempt to become Mayor of London yesterday - winning the Conservative nomination by a comfortable margin of more than two to one over his rival, former transport minister Mr Steven Norris, writes Frank Millar.
The controversial multi-millionaire novelist and former party chairman, won 70 per cent of the 22,000 votes cast by London Conservatives, beating Mr Norris by 15,716 to 6,350. The announcement of the result by Conservative Central Office was delayed by the higher than expected ballot, although it had been estimated that 39,000 party members were eligible to vote.
The mayoral contest will take place next April, with attention now focused on whether Mr Tony Blair will block Mr Ken Livingstone's bid to become Labour's standard-bearer.
But Labour yesterday drew up the election battle lines, with Mr Jim Fitzpatrick MP, chair of the Greater London Labour Party, claiming Lord Archer's selection "will be a constant embarrassment for the Conservatives, reminding people of their failure in the past".
The result, he claimed, "shows how bankrupt of talent and new ideas today's Conservative Party are".