Mayor of London Boris Johnson visited Enfield to support a campaign to reinvigorate the borough’s high streets.

The politician visited several shops across Enfield Town and Lancaster Road, delighting shop owners yesterday.

The Help4highstreets campaign, led by Enfield North MP Nick de Bois and Enfield Southgate MP David Burrowes, is calling for Enfield Borough Council to reduce business rates for shop owners in all Enfield high streets.

Mr Johnson’s first stop saw him opening a new laser clinic at jeweller's G Mantella, and he praised the shop, which was badly damaged during the riots in 2011.

Upon arrival at the clinic, the mayor was blown away by the new features, uttering the words “crikey” and “wow”.

When asked about the recovery of shops such at G Mantella, which was damaged during the riots two years ago, Mr Johnson was highly complimentary.

He said: “I love coming to Enfield, it’s great to see the way shops like Mr Mantella’s have come back and it is very important to support the high street. We have put more than £1million into supporting Enfield shopping centres and other high streets.

“What the campaign is doing is very important because it’s a great issue for many people. I have been mayor for almost six years and since then I have seen London businesses do brilliantly and also seen the pressure they are under because of these rates.”

After a whistle-stop tour of Enfield Town, the Mayor dashed to Lancaster Road to visit shops including Trish Kelly’s shop Indivijewelistic.

Ms Kelly has been a champion of the campaign since its inception and believes that car parking is also a fundamental issue.

She said: “Local businesses are getting on board and it is moving quite well. But as well as business rates, car parking is a major problem. People who are going to work in the Enfield Town centre are having to park all the way out here which means shoppers aren’t able to find spaces.”

Mr de Bois said: “Right now, business rates are too high.  We should be helping not hindering shop owners with hefty rates demands. It is for this reason I launched the Help4Highstreets campaign to convince Enfield Council to use the powers this government granted them to lower business rates.

“I am very pleased Mayor Boris Johnson was here to help launch this campaign and encourage everyone who wants to help their local shops to sign the petition on help4highstreets.org.uk and display our posters in the run up to Small Business Saturday on December 7th.”

The Lord Mayor went on to talk about three areas that can also be improved to help high street burst back into life.

He said: “There are three areas which need to be done; improving the neighbourhood, lowering business rates and getting people to shop locally by helping parking.

“Mantella’s looks like they could be onto a real winner and their new clinic could bring the elixir of youth. They are the backbone of the high street and the ones who will boost the economy.”