Mayor accused of dirty twix over City Hall’s missing chocolate

Since he became Mayor, Boris Johnson has ousted Met police commissioner Sir Ian Blair, started

But the biggest outcry he has faced from City Hall staff has been over the disappearance of chocolate from the building's canteen.

Opponents have laid the blame at Mr Johnson's door following the renegotiation of the Greater London Authority's catering contract, with petitions being gathered and talk of a Facebook protest.

Under Ken Livingstone's mayoralty, the basement canteen was switched to fair-trade goods, including chocolate bars, chocolate cookies and chocolate muffins.

But despite the unexpected appearance of Mars bars and Twix for a brief period this summer,
chocolate bars disappeared last month when catering firm OCS took over the contract from
London firm Jill Bartlett & Company.

However, Mr Johnson has been swift to act — interrupting a keynote address to City Hall staff on Monday about his transport, economic and planning policies to announce that chocolate would be returning to the canteen.

One City Hall source said: "There was a presentation to staff which was ostensibly to look at the three mayoral strategies.

"Boris made a fairly rambling speech, part of which was about him reversing the removal of chocolate from the canteen.

"It was obvious it had reached the very top because Boris felt he needed to address it in front of all the staff."

A spokeswoman for the Mayor said today: "A new catering contract for City Hall was awarded at the beginning of August. The new contractor does not usually provide chocolate."