Boris Johnson planning £15m monument to rival Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower

He vowed to crack down on tall buildings and protect London's 'precious' skyline in his mayoral manifesto.

But when it comes to sealing his legacy, it seems Boris Johnson is prepared to make an exception.

The London Mayor is planning a £15million monument intended to rival the Eiffel Tower to mark his term in office.

Funded by the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, Britain’s richest man, the sculpture has attracted designs from some of the country's most famous artists, including former Turner prize winner Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley, the designer of the Angel of the North.

A panel is currently considering five submitted designs, with the winner likely to be announced in the next fortnight.

So far there are no inverted pyramids among them, however one early submission by Paul Fryer shows the monumental scale of the project.

Six times taller than the Angel of the North, near Gateshead, his proposed sculpture, called Transmission, is 400ft tall and features a translucent structure with viewing decks towering above the Olympic Park. Its steel frame is inspired by a pylon — perhaps in a nod to Mittal’s business, which has earned his family a £10.8 billion fortune.

It would be lit at night and powered by solar panels.

Johnson's monument is part of an extensive cultural programme planned to celebrate the 2012 Olympics.

Twelve public artworks commissioned by the Cultural Olympiad last week to celebrate the Games include a giant figure of Lady Godiva, which will be led in procession from Coventry to London, a three-mile tower of vapour rising from a dock in Liverpool, a pair of 30ft crocheted lions and a tiny island that will be tugged from the Arctic to England to provoke discussion about climate change.