Hypocritical Lansley backs Ken over “full-time Mayor” pledge

This morning Ken Livingstone was at Downing Street, calling for a change to the Greater London Act, prohibiting the London Mayor from taking on further paid jobs. Meanwhile, his opponent Boris Johnson was using his £250k a year column for the Telegraph to urge young people to work for nothing…

Whilst at Downing Street though, the following encounter occured:

According to Livingstone’s team:

“Meeting Ken outside Downing Street, Lansley was surprisingly positive about Ken’s call for changes to the Greater London Authority Act to ban second jobs for the Mayor. 

“I was delighted to meet Mr Lansley this morning” said Ken, “I have asked the Prime Minister to provide parliamentary time to change the Greater London Act to prohibit the London Mayor from taking a second paid job. I hope the Prime Minister is able to be as positive about my campaign as his Health Secretary.”

So Lansley is against second jobs for London Mayors? Is this a sign that he’ll be backing Osborne over Johnson if/when the time comes? Funnily enough, Lansley has no problem with MPs taking second jobs – a year before the election, he made £1,073 a month at marketing firm Profero, who have worked for drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline. But that’s different, right Andrew?