Red Ken faces colourful fight for London Mayor

There are glimmers of hope that the perennially dull London mayoral race may finally feature contestants with something interesting to say.

Boris Johnson, the Tory MP for Henley, is poised to enter the fray against Ken Livingstone (right). The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, are discussing fielding Brian Paddick, the former Scotland Yard officer who pioneered a scheme to relax the penalties in Lambeth for smoking cannabis.

The contest, already being billed as Brixton vs Islington and Cricklewood, has the Liberal Democrats thinking the popular ex-Metropolitan deputy assistant commissioner could give both the current Labour Mayor, who recently compared a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard, and Mr Johnson, who confessed to once taking cocaine, a tough challenge.

Mr Paddick, who was the highest-ranking openly gay police officer in England and Wales before his recent retirement, is an outspoken and colourful figure.

He came to prominence while overseeing a scheme that meant people caught with small amounts of cannabis in Brixton would not be prosecuted, but sent away with a warning.

The high-profile police officer also criticised Sir Ian Blair, the Met Commissioner, over the shooting of an innocent Brazilian mistaken for a terrorist.

Liberal Democrat sources said that it was a "distinct possibility" that Mr Paddick could run as a mayoral candidate.

Talks are believed to have taken place about the candidacy, although others have also been approached about the mayoral fight.

One senior Liberal Democrat source said that there was "no question of him being parachuted in".

"He is a Liberal Democrat supporter and prominent in London. We are talking to quite a number of people," said a party spokesman.

Speculation that Mr Johnson was about to enter the fray increased last week when his official website confirmed that he would stand. But the announcement was withdrawn after 10 minutes.

The gaffe-prone Tory MP and ex-editor of the Spectator may find that some of his previous pronouncements about London will come back to bite him.

He has not only attacked "sweating, appalling, fume-filled central London" but blasted Mr Livingstone's "evil frankfurter buses that crush cyclists to the kerb" and the "the unbelievable and chronic chaos on the Tube."