Bloomberg to offer London advice

New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is to fly into London on Friday to offer Boris Johnson, his newly elected counterpart, tips on how to cope with running one of the world's largest cities - and on how to avoid pitfalls in his early weeks in office.

Conservatives hailed the meeting as a sign of Johnson's new status as one of Britain's most powerful politicians who will, they hope, help David Cameron to unseat Gordon Brown in the next two years.

"This is a tipping point for us, this is a self-belief moment that shows we can win," a member of the Cameron circle said yesterday after Johnson capped the Tories' most successful council elections in 16 years by unseating Ken Livingstone in London.