The dastardly Mr Deedes

■ Punchy Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein, who is expected to stand down in the coming months, is being encouraged by friends to run as Mayor of New York. Bronx-born Lloyd, 63, is said to be flattered but sceptical. He lacks the charisma of his predecessors Hank Paulson, 72, and Jon Corzine, 71, both of whom went into politics, and would regard a campaign doomed to fail an unnecessary dent in his $1bn fortune. Media mogul Michael Bloomberg’s mayoral campaigns cost him more than £200m. ■ Venture capitalist Michael Edelson has been appointed a director of pension firm Tontine Trust. The jovial Manchester United director, 73, aka ‘The Shellmeister’, is one of the City’s most popular dealmakers, helping to float firms such as Knutsford and ASOS. Though I fear he’s destined to be remembered as the man who introduced David Beckham to a young, pouting Victoria Adams. ■ Scurrilous allegations that Sir Martin Sorrell, 73, paid a sex worker in Mayfair’s Shepherd Market £300 – which the dainty ex-WPP boss strenuously denies – suggest an alarming decline in the area’s going rates. It was on those same cobbled streets Jeffrey Archer met prostitute Monica Coghlan, whom he admitted paying £2,000. That was way back in 1986. No doubt gloomy Remainers will blame Brexit. ■ WPP weren’t commenting on the urgent Sorrell business yesterday. Though they did issue a press release announcing it had cut the ribbon on its offices in Lower Manhattan, as though this non-story was of any comparable interest. ■ Rheumy-eyed investor George Soros, 87, is set to add another chunk to his £6bn fortune after he was revealed to be stakeholder in wonder horse Justify, winner of America’s Triple Crown on Saturday. The horse’s breeding rights are now said to be worth £60m. If he’s as virile as his partowner he should prove a successful stallion. The thrice married old goat has fathered five children.