London's Conservatives should permanently distance themselves from Boris Johnson's party in Westminster, according to a leading Tory.

Nicholas Rogers, who is the Conservative member of the London Assembly for south west London, made the radical suggestion in the wake of the party's drubbing in the local council elections.

Conservative councillors and candidates were effectively wiped out by a Lib-Dem landslide in Richmond and Kingston last week, apparently in a backlash against Boris Johnson's leadership.

Many of the party's candidates in Richmond, Kingston and Wandsworth, attempted to distance themselves by officially listing themselves on the ballot paper as 'Local Conservatives'. They also adopted green tinged election posters rather than Tory blue.

Mr Rogers argued that this approach should now be adopted for London as a whole to allow the party to create a new identity that is distinct from the national party.

He was elected last year to represent south west London with a majority of just under 8,000, which was down from around 21,000 for his Tory predecessor in 2016. Based on last week's Council election results, he would be ousted next time round.

Writing on the Conservative Home website, Mr Rogers, made the case for a new approach, saying: "The issues London faces are different – and on a different scale – to issues faced elsewhere in Britain. The electorate is distinct, as are their expectations of their politicians.

"For us to address these issues and meet the expectations of our electorate, it is increasingly clear to me that the Conservative Party in London needs more freedom to respond in an appropriate way.

"Part of this must entail us forging an identity that is distinct from the national Conservative brand."

He said a complete break-away with a separate party, as is the case in Scotland, is 'a step too far'.

However, he says: "A distinct visual identity appropriate to London would help bind the party in our city more closely together and ensure we speak as one voice on the issues that matter to our electorate."

Mr Rogers adds: "There's the old canard about people getting more conservative as they get older; well, millennials (I suppose I am one, just about) are not that young anymore and yet they show few signs of coming our way.

"There are obvious reasons why this might be the case. A sense of ownership of one's community – a stake in society – is the core of our Conservative values. Yet, if you are sharing a rented flat with a load of other people, struggling to save up for a deposit despite holding a decent job and earning a reasonable salary, how can you hope to build that stake in society, or even think about starting a family?

"With the average house price in London over £530,000, this problem goes way beyond giving up avocado toast and cancelling your Netflix subscription, despite what Kirsty Allsopp might say."

He added: "We need to build more of the right sort of housing in London with a variety of tenures – and we need to not only articulate the Conservative way of doing this but also to ensure we stand up for all of those residents."

Strikingly, he admitted: "Whether on housing, cost of living, or various social issues, it is hard to escape the sensation that, in London, we are moving away from our electorate.

"That's why a distinct London Conservative identity is so important – it would give us the freedom to address these issues and lay out our vision for a dynamic, exciting and prosperous modern London."

While south west Londoners turned to the Lib-Dems in their thousands in the Council elections, Mr Rogers does not reference them in his article. Instead, he paints the future success of the Conservatives as a fight with Labour, saying: "No one can tell me that Sadiq Khan's Labour Party understands these issues better than we do."