Boris cronyism row could be headache for Cameron

It is the last thing David Cameron needs in the run-up to the general election, but London mayor Boris Johnson looks set to reignite the cronyism row that was sparked by his attempt to appoint former Evening Standard editor Veronica Wadley to the chairmanship of Arts Council England's London region.

Despite a chorus of disapproval, with many objectors saying Wadley had none of the requisite experience for a senior arts job, and despite the Government turning her down as a result, Johnson has made it clear that he will put Wadley up for the post again.

As Standard editor, Wadley gave Johnson the paper’s full backing for his run at the mayoralty in spring 2007, and let an equally fierce campaign of criticism against his predecessor Ken Livingstone.

Johnson first attempt to get her the Arts Council job ended in humiliating failure in October when culture secretary Ben Bradshaw vetoed her selection. But Johnson has continued to maintain since that Wadley is "the best person for the job" and readvertised the post this week on the Greater London Authority website.

Wadley, who is married to investigative journalist Tom Bower, first learned of the Arts Council position during a lunch with Johnson in April. She wrote a note to the mayor afterwards asking for his blessing to apply for it, and unsurprisingly made it through to the final four who were interviewed by a panel that included former BBC Radio boss Liz Forgan and Johnson's culture advisor Munira Mirza.

Forgan and a third interviewer, Sir David Durie, a former governor of Gibraltar, considered that Wadley did not possess enough background in the arts and felt that the other three candidates had all given better interviews. They recommended that all but the former editor went through to the second interview with Johnson himself, so there was understandable annoyance when they discovered Johnson was planning to interview Wadley regardless of their recommendations. Their anger only increased when she was offered the job within two hours of being interviewed by the mayor.

At this stage Johnson had to ask the culture secretary for his approval. After consulting Forgan, Ben Bradshaw refused to rubber-stamp Boris' choice and suggested that he look for a new appointee. Johnson decided to effectively ignore the three other candidates who made it through to the final interview stage and restart the whole process, a decision which has been widely criticised.

Darren Johnson (no relation), a Green party member of the London assembly, said Boris was "re-running a process until he gets the right result", while Guardian blogger Dave Hill writes that "Johnson has exploited the process's potential for being reduced to a farce, and done so in order that it generates the outcome he desires." The mayor well knows that there now won't be a decision made on the post ahead of the general election, and with shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt indicating his approval of Wadley for the role, it looks like the mayor will ultimately have his way.

But the damage to his reputation could be harder to turn around. Hill notes that the mayor is "routinely accused of drift, ineptitude and attention-seeking - while at the same time dodging scrutiny. To this list some now add that he is taking the wrong sort of care of an old friend." And by handing the Labour party a weapon - cronyism - with which to attack the Tories on a national stage, Boris's old school chum Cameron may rue the day the mayor tried to help out a friend. ·