BORIS Johnson has snubbed the latest move to persuade him to help get the 2012 Olympics organisers to switch the controversial Marathon route back to East London.

The mayor refused to be drawn into the ‘people’s campaign’ when London Assembly member John Biggs asked him to use his influence and get the Marathon back to its original route through Tower Hill and Whitechapel to the Olympics stadium at Stratford.

Mr Biggs, the Assembly’s budget chairman and City & East London member, asked the mayor: “Are you big enough to give this event back to my constituents in London’s East End? With 548 days to go, it is not too late to change your mind.”

But Boris Johnson’s written answer was that the route has been approved by the International Olympics Committee and that the London organisers were “working with Tower Hamlets to ensure its residents have other opportunities to be a part of the Games.”

Boris’s reply added: “The buzz of Games activity including the Torch Relay will ensure your constituents are truly part of London 2012.”

It is a setback for London Citizens umbrella organisation which launched a ‘Citizens’ Route’ campaign with the Advertiser to reverse Lord Coe’s decision.

London Citizens has since been contacted by the Mayor’s office, the Advertiser understands, for a meeting “in the next couple of months.”

But time is already running out. London Citizens is now planning day of action in April when the IOC arrives in London.

The Mayor was heavily criticised in October when he said anyone who didn’t like the route being switched to the West End could “like it or lump it!”