How could you vote for Zac Goldsmith as Mayor of London? The man doesn't even know his Tube stations

An affinity with the underground system at the heart of the capital is arguably one of those things that unites all Londoners, and they may wish to share that affinity with their mayor

The Conservatives chose Zac Goldsmith as their candidate for London Mayor (PA)

When Sir Elton John once claimed a loaf of bread cost “I dunno, fifty quid” it wasn’t entirely his fault. He was, after all, not even there, and was instead being portrayed by Matt Lucas in a wig and a Schiaparelli pink suit for the purposes of a comedy TV show.

BBC2’s Victoria Derbyshire is not a comedy TV show, and though viewers may have been confused by the fact that the cabbie ferrying London’s Conservative mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith around London was actually BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith, the answers Mr Goldsmith gave were genuine, and not meant to be funny.

“What comes next? Bond Street. Oxford Circus. Tottenham Court Road,” Mr Smith asked him.

A small handful of Londoners, some of whom may not even be considering running for mayor, might be inclined to answer "Holborn". But the correct answer, according to Mr Goldsmith, is in fact: “I’m going to stop you there.”

Now, who hasn’t been stopped against their will at Tottenham Court Road? They’ve been building the Crossrail terminal there since wooly mammoths queued up for returns to We Will Rock You, but Mr Goldsmith continued.

“Because I don’t, erm, most people have a route, erm, I have two routes. But for journeys outside of the normal route I have apps like Citymapper.”

No doubt he’s right. And no doubt Mr Goldsmith could happily reel off the names of every tube station from Westminster to his Richmond constituency, and having relinquished his non-dom status shortly before entering politics he would be free to do so, now he is no longer required to prove to HM Revenue & Customs that his "natural home" is outside the UK for tax reasons.

But, well, Oxford Circus, is, you know, the very centre of London, at least in terms of the tube map, and an affinity with the underground system at the heart of the capital is arguably one of those things that unites all Londoners, and they may wish to share that affinity with their mayor.

Never mind. Anyway, London is a big place, and Goldsmith, in his defence, is a west Londoner, he’ll definitely know who plays football at Loftus Road.

“I don’t know that. What’s the answer?” He said. The answer, you may know, is Queen’s Park Rangers, and even having made a sizeable donation to the QPR Community Trust, via his mate Lakshmi Mittal’s son-in-law’s fun run in 2011, when Mittal owned 20 per cent of the west London football club, Goldsmith was unable to remember.

In fairness, when asked ‘Who was the first landlord of the Queen Vic?’ He did successfully answer ‘Dirty Den’, an achievement made all the more impressive given his view that the 1985 soap started "50 years ago".

You could argue these general knowledge quizzes are cheap political stunts. But they work.