24 hours with Zac Goldsmith: on the campaign trail with Tory mayoral hopeful

Early morning: Zac Goldsmith joined milkman Dominic Gilham on his early delivery round
Jeremy Selwyn

As London woke this morning, Zac Goldsmith was 12 hours into a campaign marathon, joining milkman Dominic Gilham on his early delivery round.

In Kynance Mews in Kensington, Alison Mould, 50, was given a shock when she saw the mayoral hopeful leaving two bottles of semi-skimmed on her doorstep, along with a BackZac campaign flyer.

“I was cross with the noise outside but then I looked and realised who it was. It was just bizarre,” she explained, adding: “He was very sweet.”

A couple of hours earlier, shortly after 4am, Mr Goldsmith had arrived at Billingsgate Market in Poplar, where traders were busily carrying pallets of fish, crabs and clams past dozens of rows of seafood.

At Asian Fresh, the Tory mayoral contender held aloft an 8kg Jack Fish for a quick photo and chatted with the fishmongers.

Zac holds a jackfish on an early morning visit to Billingsgate Fish Market
Jeremy Selwyn

Afterwards trader Sathyaseelam Vasee, 42, from south London, described the candidate as “a nice man” — but wasn’t sure who he was.

Around 1am, the Goldsmith double-decker bus had rolled into Harlesden, with hunger biting among his team.

At an impromptu stop at Bigger Bite fish and chip and kebab shop, Mr Goldsmith carved a member of his staff a chicken shawarma before tucking into a lamb doner kebab, with a knife and fork, relishing the chilli sauce.

Other stops on the night-time tour included a Hindu service at Lampton School in Hounslow, an Ocado depot in Park Royal and the L Lynch Rail Hub in Willesden Junction.

Zac chatting to workers at an Ocado depot
Nigel Howard

At 8am, he met Chancellor George Osborne at the London Stock Exchange to open the day’s trading.

About an hour later, he was joining taxi drivers for a fry-up at the cabman’s shelter near the corner of Wellington Place and Cochrane Street in St John’s Wood.

Earlier, David Cameron had bounded onto the stage at a rally as if presenting the latest episode of Have I Got A Mayor For You.

He’d brought one, Boris Johnson, who he’d helped to make it to City Hall by persuading him to stand eight years ago, and another, Mr Goldsmith, who he hopes will be the next Mayor.

Soon the catchphrases were tripping off the tie-less Prime Minister’s tongue in praise of Mr Goldsmith at the event at Grey Court School, Ham, last night. “He’s the right man, with the right plan, that’s why we want to make him our man,” he declared to the gathering.

Mr Goldsmith also stopped for a late-night lamb doner and chips
Nigel Howard

Next up was Boris, who the premier insisted, despite Brexit tales to the contrary, was “a great friend”.

Mr Johnson exploded into a full-blown attack on Labour, highlight the Tories ousting “the Lefties” from City Hall in 2008.

“They were a bunch of high-taxing, high-spending, taxpayer-funded Chateauneuf Du Pape-swilling, Hugo Chavez-venerating bendy bus fetishists,” he said.

Early morning: Zac had a fry-up with taxi drivers at a cafe in St John's Wood
Jeremy Selwyn

Then, Mr Goldsmith made one last plea to his supporters.

“This election will go right down to the wire,” he said. “So I’m going to need you to throw the kitchen sink at this campaign — for each and every hour between now and the election.”

Among loyal fans was his mother, Lady Annabel Goldsmith who, when asked if he would win, said: “I would be very happy if he did.”

Next, Mr Goldsmith headed to the Dog & Fox pub in Wimbledon where he mingled with the locals.

“He was very charming and quite dashing,” said Kim Peacock, 38, of solicitors Peacock & Co. Charlie Chirico, 29, a local Conservative councillor and Leicester City fan, said: “He would be my fairy-tale Mayor of London.”

If Mr Goldsmith wins, she may have to pinch herself twice that it’s not all a dream.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT