Former Labour home secretary Alan Johnson has indicated he would be prepared to run for Mayor London in 2016, having decided against taking on Boris Johnson this year.
Speaking to The House magazine, Johnson said he would "not rule it out" when asked if he fancied swapping Westminster for City Hall.
The Hull MP, who was born in London, acknowledged he had considered taking on Ken Livingstone for the Labour nomination this time.
“There were lots of colleagues who quite liked the idea of Johnson versus Johnson. I left the question open at the time," he said.
"I don’t think Boris was sitting there petrified at the idea of Alan Johnson, but there were a lot of people thinking it shouldn’t be a re-run of the last one.
"Actually, I’m a great admirer of Ken and probably the Boris factor would have done for anyone. But it’s very rare that you just re-run the same challenge in any sphere, that you just run the same candidate who lost some years before.
He added: "So maybe we do need a bit of fresh blood next time that’s for sure. I would not rule it out.”
Johnson also dismissed the idea that at 66, he would be too old by the time the next mayoral election came around.
“I don’t think [the problem] was age with Ken. If you look at some of the great mayors around the world, look at America, like New York, you have to be sort of 80 before you qualify,” he said.
Johnson also repeated his claim made during an interview with The Huffington Post UK in March that he found serving in Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet "bloody depressing" having previously been a secretary of state.
"I’ve found it more difficult, probably, to convert to Opposition because once you’ve been in government it’s very difficult to sit on the outside and just pretend you’re in government," he told The House.
Johnson briefly served as shadow home secretary and then shadow chancellor after the 2010 general election.
He said that while the younger and newer MPs on Labour's front bench would be "really driven" by the job, he found it hard to cope with the loss of power.