News Review Interview: Boris Johnson

"It was a question of proportionality and a lot of Londoners felt that the dispute wasn't proportional to the result," says Johnson, declaring that he will be taking the row even further and investigating whether he could make it illegal for Tube workers to stay at home, if the grounds for striking "are comparatively trivial".

"The union made it clear it wasn't interested in a no-strike deal," he continues, "so the only option would be to go for some regulatory solution. That is not going to be easy with the current government, although I have had some interesting conversations with the new transport secretary."

He would like to see an amendment to the terms and conditions of striking, "which would make it more difficult for public sector unions who are responsible for vital public services to take action".

While part of his argument is undoubtedly down to irritation over union intransigence, he also clearly feels he has the wind of public opinion behind him: "There has got to be something to make the consequences of such a dispute less damaging. Particularly [when] there are people out there looking for work. With people who are on desperately low incomes who need to get to work, it was crackers of the RMT to take action in this particular climate."

Can he really see himself pushing forward a "no strike" clause in the employment of Tube drivers? Well, why not? After all, Johnson was supposedly the "unelectable" candidate for the mayoralty, the joker in the pack who somehow came through on the wings of self-belief. With this latest tactic, however, he is probably quite sensible to be cautious: "Whether it is possible to produce a no-strike option in statute is something to explore. There may be other remedies that could be used in cases like this. That's something we are actively taking forward."

Perhaps by calling its members out and bouncing Johnson into reactive mode, the RMT has paradoxically offered him a rather handy first-birthday present. Since his election as mayor last May, his regime has been criticised as unfocused, uncertain and inconsistent: this may be just the tonic he needs. He insists, of course, that he has loved the challenge. "It's been wonderful," he says brightening, "a bit like doing S-level geography.

"I never did S-level geography, you see," he adds hastily. A baffling quote is never far from BoJo.

He charges on: "S-level Greek and S-level Latin, but not geography. It's a very absorbing job."

What does he say to critics who think his leadership has been inco-herent? "I don't hear those people. I'm not aware of them. I think you must be talking about the former mayor, since he is the only person who has said such things."

Well, no, I am referring to people such as Simon Heffer, who has gone on the record to call Johnson an "unguided missile" and suggest his mayoralty "lacked narrative". Johnson greets such comments with undisguised irritation, hunching his large shoulders over and rolling his eyes dismissively. "A narrative is something that emerges in the telling," he says authoritatively.

What is the mayoral narrative? "What's the plotline of this great city under me? It's very simple. It's about greatly improving the feel and look of London and helping people to get through the recession."

A caring, sharing Conservative? Not very in keeping with the current policies swirling around the Tories in Westminster, but Johnson has always been his own man.

"The fiscal position is going to be very difficult," he admits but, unlike his Westminster colleagues, he does not want to stifle public spending. Boris may not have a giant budget at his disposal, but as mayor he has huge influence over the policies of others: "What politicians need to realise is the difference between policies to promote consumption and policies to promote investment.

"There is now an argument for cutting public services and there will be a big row about that. Treasury economists know, but their political masters will not let them say, that if you want to maximise return on taxpayers' money, you put it into London. London is the motor of the UK. It would be utterly fateful if someone comes in and thinks they can save money by postponing projects such as Crossrail or the upgrades to the Tube."

Both of which are admittedly rather long-term projects - Crossrail, in particular, is not expected to be finished until around 2020. Does this mean Johnson is also going for a long-term future in City Hall? Recently the Tory former MP for Henley in Oxfordshire has been vague about whether or not he would return to Westminster. Today he says: "If things go okay over the next year or so, then I'd be crazy not to stand again."

What about the imminent future? "I'm working flat-out on a huge programme, across all . . ." I rather hope he is going to say "parties", but he continues, "with a huge agenda." Yet the perfume left lingering is that of an independently minded politician rather than a tool of the Conservative party. That, of course, is Johnson's great strength, as well as his Achilles heel. Because his personality and celebrity appeal across the board, he is as much a thorn in the side of the Tories as one of their greatest assets.

Now in a position that even he could not have predicted, he has built his own fiefdom - a republic of Boris - in City Hall and has a popular mandate far stronger than many of his superiors in Westminster. No wonder he wants to consolidate his position with a second term. From the vantage point of his Norman Foster-designed modern fishbowl, returning to the gothic spires of the House of Commons probably doesn't look very appealing.

The unusual tension between David Cameron, the cautious and collected Conservative leader, and the exciting but unreliable Boris - like a pop star, he is instantly recog-nisable by his first name - has long been noted. The two may have been friends for 25 years but Johnson cannot fail to remember how, in 2005, after he had lent early support to Cameron's leadership campaign, he was left out of the shadow cabinet. The snub was repeated 18 months later. You're not really a Cameron fan, are you, I ask him.

"Where did you get that from?" says Johnson. "You are incredibly hostile and aggressive. There is no enmity between me and David Cameron."

So if he gets to No 10 and you are still in City Hall, I say, how will things go - will you be singing from the same song sheet? "I'm sure it will be . . . terrific," says Johnson. Just for a microsecond, he loses a bit of that famous brio.

Anyway, forward march. He quickly bats away pesky questions about his minor embroilment in the recent MPs' expenses scandal. "I think I've said all I have to say on that," he says, of apologising for having "mistakenly added" a receipt for £16.50 for a Remembrance Day wreath to his claims.

He becomes even more bombastic when cross-questioned about his original pledge to make London into a "cleaner, greener, fairer city", which has yet to happen. His decision to make red lights shorter has, in fact, made it easier, not harder, to drive into the capital, a policy that can only help to boost its current position as the most polluted city in both western and eastern Europe.

Yet more nonsense, apparently: he is, he reminds me, wholly on the side of the environment. As a mad-keen cyclist, his own carbon footprint is laughably small and he would do anything to improve the lot of biking in the capital.

"We are spending considerably more on the cycle network than any previous mayoralty," he says. Really? Research by the Green party in the London assembly recently revealed that Johnson had removed £24m from the budget for cycle routes, thus causing about 400 routes planned by the London Cycle Network to be scrapped. When confronted with these figures, he simply denies them.

"Utter nonsense," says the mayor. "Complete nonsense. The London Cycling whatever, that lobby group, would be falling down in their duty if they did not criticise me. [But] they couldn't have a more able and effective pro-cycling mayor." The Johnson image - wuffling great Tory crashing through the capital on his eminently eco-friendly mode of transport - is one of his trump cards, of course. "Some of these cycling groups are not sympathetic to me because they regard me as a Conservative. It is an agony for them to see me as a Conservative, championing the thing that they think is a wonderful, leftist, liberating thing," he says, ever the contradiction.

Are these cycling groups really so shallow? "Yes, they are," he says firmly. "It is psychological torture for them to see something they regard as antiestablishment to have been captured by this creature of the Conservative liberal establishment. It is a nightmare for them. The more I do, the more painful it is."

He is certainly a head-turner, I'll give him that. Everyone smiles when he shambles into City Hall. What a fabulous position to be in: a marketing man's dream. If the package that's being marketed is one of defiant independence, however, there may come a moment when Johnson, who seems to have called it right last week, may not gauge public opinion correctly. Then the smiles may turn upside down.