"All these thing come and go, of course it will always be and always has been a historic aim of the French in particular, other countries certainly, to try and chip away at the financial dominance of the city," Johnson told CNN. "That is always going to be their objective and you have to forgive them for that, they are bound to use what bureaucratic tools they can to achieve those goals.

They haven't succeeded I the past, I don't believe they will succeed," he added. "I think the key reason is actually in the end most sensible people in other European capitals know that it is in their interest, in the interest of the EU, to have a massive global powerhouse in London rather than in Singapore or New York."

And what did London's mayor think of the World Economic Forum in Davos?

"It's all a bit intoxicating isn't it? It is this great cyclotron of egos isn't it, everybody is bumping into each other and having an enormous ghastly, nauseating, mutual feelings of self-regard," he said. "But you know it is important, I never come away feeling without having met people that could put a lot of money into London, and that is generally what we achieve."