Story by Joe Acklam.

The Kingston representative of the London Assembly is considering becoming the Conservative party's youngest ever London Mayoral candidate. 

Nick Rogers, 37, is the representative for South West London in the London Assembly, representing the boroughs of Richmond-upon-Thames, Kingston-upon-Thames, and Hounslow and is considering running to be the Tory party candidate to become Mayor of London. 

Rogers has been on the London Assembly since 2021 and thinks that his youth will help attract a younger demographic of voters than his party have been able to command in recent years. 

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting service, he said: "I have been considering it for a while, and I've been speaking to colleagues and also thinking a bit about what we as a party need to do in order to win the next mayoral election. 

"I think the choice of our candidate is so important, because we need to run a campaign that strikes the right tone and talks to the right people and hits the right issues. 

"The tone has to be one of positivity, it really does. It needs to be a positive, forward-looking optimistic campaign that recognises London is the greatest city in the world, but the best can still get better. 

"We need to address it [the Conservatives struggling to attract younger voters]. The place to do that, I'm convinced, is in our next mayoral campaign. That's the place we can do that. I think it's actually an opportunity for the party. 

"In London, we can get out ahead of this issue. We can set the tone for the party in the rest of the country. Who better to stand up for millennial Londoners than a millennial Londoner?" 

Rogers also believes that there is an opportunity to defeat the incumbent mayor Sadiq Khan, due to the expansion of the ULEZ zone being an "an issue that is uniting people across the party divide, in opposition." 

Were he to run then Rogers would be up against fellow London Assembly member Andrew Boff, leader of the Conservative party in the London Assembly, former advisor to Boris Johnson, Samuel Kasumu, and the potential of Paul Scully, MP for Sutton and Cheam also deciding to run. 

It has not yet been announced when during 2023 the Conservatives will decide on their candidate.