Former leader of Kingston Council Kevin Davis is hoping to take on Sadiq Khan in the next London mayoral election.

After losing control of the council to the Liberal Democrats in May, the Conservative leader has nominated himself to become the Tory candidate for 2020.

Cllr Davis said: “That’s partly borne of the fact that the current mayor is just not up to it. He has broken promise after promise.

“Two years in and he has nothing to show for it, which is the wrong place to be.”

One particular problem Cllr Davis has with Mr Khan’s mayoralty include the state of the Metropolitan Police Service.

He said: “How we police London is his responsibility. He can say he needs more funding, but the money is the money; it’s how you use it.

“For example, freezing fares: he could be using the money lost there to plug the gap in the police funding. It’s about priorities, and it’s affecting the lives of Londoners.”

In the run-up to nominations closing on July 4, several Conservative politicians with national profiles ruled themselves out, including Putney MP Justine Greening and deputy party chairman James Cleverly.

The full list of candidates will be announced before hustings begin later in the summer.

Cllr Davis is running on a “one London” platform – a term borrowed from the late Labour MP Dame Tessa Jowell from her bid for mayoral candidacy a few years ago.

He said: “I agree entirely with her diagnosis. I think she may well have had different solutions to the problem, but it’s something we have to think about really hard.

“I think London is a divided city. It’s not just about leave and remain, but it’s rich and poor, and along lines of ethnicity and faith.

“London will not work unless people are living together and working together.”

While leader of the council, a role Cllr Davis had for four years, he worked with two London mayors – including fellow Conservative Boris Johnson.

Cllr Davis said: “What was noticeably different was how much easier it was to meet directly with Boris Johnson as leader of the council.

“Mr Khan has closed himself off to borough leaders.”

He hopes to use his experience as leader as mayor, saying: “Kingston is a very different council from when I inherited it. It’s building more homes, it’s independent from the government financially, it’s heading in the right direction – well, it was.”

The full list of candidates is expected in the coming weeks before hustings and other campaigning begins, with a final vote in September, ready for the chosen candidate to begin the long process of building the profile needed to challenge Sadiq Khan.