They (the government) could not oppose it, it’s within the power of the mayor - some Tory councils took Khan to court on a technicality, lost, and the judge told them as much. It would be a case of a waste of taxpayers money and we’ve had a few of them.
Regarding a clever plot I doubt they are that forward thinking. Of course they’re making political capital out of it following the recent election result as it was an issue for the voter but they have very little else to attack Labour on as they are both broadly agreeing with each other.
Outside the impacted it’s unlikely to register on a list of wider GE voter concerns - nor do I see the issue of a mayor exercising their lawful powers a matter for the national government - if they don’t like it remove those powers, don’t complain about how they use them. The local voters can deal with it at the mayoral ballot box as is their democratic right. At best the tories might win one or two seats as a consequence but it’s not going to make a scrap of difference to the outcome.
