Early career

Born in Uxbridge^[1] in 1958 and active in politics since the 1970s, Boff was a Young Conservative branch founder whilst still at school; in 1976 he proposed the legalisation of cannabis at a Young Conservative national conference. His mother Elsie was already a councillor when he was elected a councillor in Hillingdon in 1982. He later served as Leader of the Council between 1990 and 1992.^[2] In 1992, he stepped down to stand for Parliament, defending the marginal Hornsey and Wood Green constituency. He lost the seat to Labour's Barbara Roche with 39.2% of the vote.

Boff stood in the safe Labour seat of London South Inner in the 1994 election to the European Parliament. He was placed seventh on the Conservative list in London in the 1999 European Parliament election. He failed to be elected both times.^[3]

London Assembly

Boff became known in London politics after he contested the Conservative nomination for the London mayoral elections in 2000, 2004 and 2008. He came second in 2000 behind Steven Norris.^[2] He came second again in 2008. In summer 2018, Boff launched another campaign to be the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London in 2021. He was shortlisted along with Joy Morrissey and fellow London Assembly Member Shaun Bailey. Boff finished once again in second place with 35% of first round votes, an increase of 31 percentage points on his run for the nomination in 2015 for the 2016 election.

Boff was placed first on the Conservative top-up list for the London Assembly in 2008, comfortably winning a seat. He was re-elected in 2012, 2016 and 2021. He ran for the chairmanship of the assembly in 2010, with the backing of the eleven Conservative members, but lost to Liberal Democrat Dee Doocey, who received the backing of the fourteen other members, including Richard Barnbrook.^[4] After his first re-election to the London Assembly, Boff was elected as the GLA Conservative Group Leader. He was succeeded by Gareth Bacon in October 2015.

In September 2015, Boff called for a managed street prostitution zone to be set up in East London in order to protect sex workers from harm.^[5]

In 2019, Boff became Chairman of the Confirmation Hearings Committee and the Planning Committee.^[6] In May 2021, he was elected Chairman of the London Assembly. In May 2022, he became Deputy Chairman of the London Assembly.

Hackney politics

He has stood for office numerous times in Hackney, where he lived. He received the Conservative nomination for the elections in 2002 and 2006 to elect the Mayor of Hackney, but came second both times. He was the Conservatives' London Assembly candidate for the North East constituency in 2004, but came third, behind the candidates from both Labour and the Liberal Democrats.^[7]

He achieved success in Hackney in 2005, when he won the supposedly safe Labour seat of Queensbridge in a council by-election, before losing it at the 2006 Hackney Council election, albeit with a vote tripled from the previous borough election.

Boff stood for Mayor of Hackney for a third time in 2010. A booklet containing election statements from every candidate except him was distributed to every voter in the borough. It excluded Boff owing to the council's confusion over whether the statements he made about the cost of the mayoralty were legally admissible.^[8] By the time they decided that they were, it was too late to print, and the council compounded the problem by telling voters who enquired that Boff was not running.^[9] In the contest, Boff fell to third place, behind the Labour incumbent and the Liberal Democrats.

Barking and Dagenham politics

Boff unsuccessfully stood for the ward of Thames at the 2014 Barking and Dagenham elections^[10] and for the ward of Longbridge at the 2018 elections.^[11] He unsuccessfully stood again for the Thames ward at a by-election in May 2021. He stood unsuccessfully for the ward of Thames View at the 2022 elections.^[12]

2023 Conservative Party Conference

On 3 October 2023, Boff was swiftly marched out of the Conservative Party Conference by police after vocally expressing his disapproval of a speech by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, which he reportedly referred to as a "homophobic rant" and "tripe".^[13][14][15]