Boris mania hit the campaign trail in the race for London Mayor - and it was chaos.

The colourful Conservative MP for Henley held a photo call at City Hall to promote his nomination, but was mobbed by the media and escaped on his bike. "It's a riot," he said before pedalling away, watched by puzzled tourists. Fighting through the scrum Mr Johnson managed to say: "I think it is amazing that people do not want to do this job. It is an amazing city. I'm thrilled and excited, but we are at a very early stage."

He resigned as higher education spokesman in Conservative leader David Cameron's front bench team on Monday to concentrate on the race for mayor but will remain as a constituency MP. His announcement, after weeks of agonising, came just hours before the noon deadline for applications for the Conservative nomination to stand against Labour's Ken Livingstone in next year's election.

Earlier Mr Johnson said: "London is an outstandingly varied and beautiful place and it deserves a proper debate. I want to bring fresh ideas to the capital and offer a new direction for Londoners. I believe that the Mayor of London should keep things simple and direct his or her intellectual energy at the core problems that affect people's everyday lives Even the greatest cities have further greatness in them. I will stand for a greater London and for putting the smile back on London's face."

The Tories had been struggling to find a high-profile candidate to take on Mr Livingstone, who is seeking his third term. Greg Dyke, Sir John Major and Sir Digby Jones were not persuaded to stand. They were forced to delay the deadline for applications amid reports that no candidates of sufficient prominence had put themselves forward. Although he has a reputation for gaffes and a complicated personal life, Mr Johnson is one of the Conservative's most popular and best-known faces, thanks partly to appearances on TV shows such as Have I Got News For You.

cleverthingies has been running for over a year now; how come we've missed out Boris all this time?

Oh, errm, blimey, make your gaffe below.


Errm, yes, I definitely turned the gas off.