ConservativeHome's London Mayor blog

UKPollingReport's guide to London's elections

Lots of useful links and lists compiled by Anthony via this link.

Rattled Labour plan negative campaign against "odious" Boris Johnson

Sky.com is reporting that Labour is planning an all-out negative assault on Tory mayoral candidate Boris Johnson.  The attacks will be led by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears at Labour's spring conference beginning today in Birmingham. 

Ms Blears is expected to say: "Boris is no joke. He's a nasty, right-wing elitist, with odious views and criminal friends like Conrad Black."

The negative attacks may be a reaction to Ken Livingstone's deteriorating poll position.  Earlier this week a YouGov poll of more than 1,000 London voters gave Boris Johnson a 5% lead.  An analysis by PoliticalBetting.com of an older MORI poll, carried out for the Livingstone campaign, showed Boris Johnson beginning to win the crucial second preference votes.

7pm: Hazel's charm offensive continues. RedBox's Sam Coates reports:

"It's bash Boris day, as the sharp-quilled yet perfectly attired Broganblog has highlighted. The attack dogs today are Hazel Blears and Tessa Jowell. Both formerly strong Blairites, they nevertheless get the "leftie-ometer" ringing quite loud with quite vicious class attacks on Boris and "Dave". It seems that if you can't do left, do class.

Hazel, in particular, related a frankly rather unpleasant tale of how she ambushed Daid Cameron at Salford "Lad's Club". He was there to get an autograph from members of The Smiths, who were performing. So the Communities Secretary organised an ambush mob with signs saying "Oi Dave - Eton's Lads' Club is 300 miles that way" and "Salford Lads not Eton snobs". He was forced out the back door and went home without an autograph.

And that night I sent him a photo of me outside Salford's Lads' Club, with greetings from Salford!

Charming..."

Ipsos-MORI put Livingstone 2% ahead

"Ipsos MORI's poll for the Labour Party shows Labour candidate Ken Livingstone on 48% and Conservative candidate Boris Johnson on 46% among Londoners who are certain to vote and in the upcoming Mayoral elections."  More here.

MORI polled from 8 to 12 February.  The polling for yesterday's YouGov survey gave Boris the edge and the polling was (we think) a little more recent.

Boris ahead in battle for London

A YouGov survey of more than 1,000 voters has Boris Johnson ahead in the race to be the next Mayor of London.  Harry Phibbs has more at CentreRight.  Please comment on Harry's thread. We've closed this one.

Boris Johnson sets out campaign themes in after lunch talk to journalists

At lunchtime today ConservativeHome was a guest at a Commons Press Gallery event with Boris Johnson as the speaker.  It was all very traditional with Grace and a Toast to Her Majesty.  Unfortunately it would be rude to reveal the journalists who stayed seated for the Toast.

Here are the main points Boris Johnson made in his after lunch speech:

• Ken Livingstone - who he christened Ken Leavingsoon - complained that BJ had been invited to address the Gallery.
• Ken Livingstone had once said that two terms was enough for a mayor and the voters of London should hold him to that.
• A Mayor Johnson would not take junkets to Cuba but would be focused on transport, housing and crime.
• Too many rabbit hutch dwellings were being constructed.  There was too much spoiling of London's garden city quality.  A Mayor Johnson would work much more closely with London's boroughs to address the city's housing needs.
• He would consider binding arbitration for the payment of London's transport workers in return for a no strikes deal.
• There would be a new, 21st century Routemaster bus that would have disability access at the front and traditional hop-on-access at the rear.
• The Freedom Pass would be retained for all of London's senior citizens.
• There would be 440 new Police Community Support Officers on London's most rowdy routes - paid for by a reduction in the Mayor's PR budget.
• Live CCTV would be tried experimentally on buses.
• Petty criminality will no longer be tolerated by young people using London Transport.  Free travel will be forfeited for anti-social behaviour and will have to be earned back by undertaking community work.
• There would be crime mapping so that London's police would be held accountable for their performance.
• More money should be going to social entrepreneurs and BJ will establish a Mayor's Fund to encourage wealthy City earners to give to good causes.
• He also said that he would like to make more use of the Thames for getting around London and he hoped to explore the possibility of Catmaran boats.

Asked by Julia Hartley-Brewer of the Sunday Express if voters could trust him given that he lied to his wife he replied that voters had more pressing concerns.

It was a winsome performance overall.  The journalists liked him.  He offered lots of policy ideas although nothing specific on tax and waste.  [Harry Phibbs wants him to lower council tax].  Perhaps that is to come...

Boris for Mayor - the unofficial theme tune

Courtesy of the long-standing BorisWatch blog.

One of the following headlines didn't appear in the taxpayer-funded Londoner (re-elect Ken) newspaper...

Crime hits 9-year low.

Greater London Authority named as top gay employer.

London's youth to get £79 million.

Vulnerable children helped to escape a life of violence and crime.

More money to make London safer and greener.

Tractor production up 4.9% as ten year glorious plan makes steady progress.

New parks planned for east London.

Congestion charge wins 'green' city award.

From zone 1 to zone 6, London's transport network is being upgraded.

Major investment is transforming the Tube.

Cheaper bus travel is unlocking the capital's outer boroughs.

Kingfishers are making a comeback thanks to better management of our local waterways.

PS Did you see yesterday's PlayPolitical video of Ken Livingstone losing his rag during a meeting with the GLA?

Phil Taylor: London Congestion Charge - 5 years, £1.2 billion and...

Analysis by Ealing councillor and blogger Phil Taylor.

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the start of the London Mayor's congestion charging scheme.  Last year I set out to show how all of the £930 million taken by the Mayor in charges and fines had been spent on out of control set-up and running costs, see previous posting.  Another year has gone by and the Mayor has taken £1.2 billion off Londoners in the last five years for the Congestion Charge.  Where has it all gone?

No doubt the Mayor or one of his 265 press people will tell us that the charge never set out to raise revenue.  Well that is OK because it doesn't. The Evening Standard showed last week that it doesn't do much for congestion either.  They said:

"Traffic speeds in parts of the congestion charge zone have fallen dramatically - in some cases to even lower than before the toll was introduced five years ago. An Evening Standard survey has found evidence that traffic on 12 key routes through central London travels at an average of only 6.5 mph. Speeds on some main routes are now slower than a walking pace. On the Strand - a vital east-west corridor - the average speed is 1.8 mph."

When the Mayor isn't claiming that these schemes set out to raise no cash, he makes the opposite assertion.  At their press conference last Tuesday the Mayor and his Transport for London Commissioner, Peter Hendy, announced the rebranding of the Congestion Charge as a CO2 charge.  During the course of his remarks Peter Hendy said the charge "raised just over £120 million last year" and "this new CO2 charge will raise an estimated £30-50 million".  Both of these claims are economically illiterate.

Lee Jasper suspended pending police investigation

Lee Jasper said that:

"I am being prevented from clearing my name, black organisations across London are being weakened by a systematic campaign in the Evening Standard from seeking funds, and a deliberate attempt is being made to divert attention from the real issues confronting London at the Mayoral election."

Livingstone commented:

"I believe this investigation will exonerate Lee Jasper and show this to be a shameful campaign. As the interests of London are best served by putting an end to this malignant political charade I have concluded that a full police investigation is the most authoritative way to end this story once and for all"

Full press release below.

Noon update: Boris Johnson's reaction...

"This is an outrageous attempt to avoid scrutiny. It was only 12 hours ago that the Mayor informed us that he had full confidence in Mr Jasper. What has changed his mind? Mr Jasper has been suspended – presumably on full pay – until after the election, in the hope that the full facts will not come out. It is clear that the Mayor’s handling of City Hall is descending into sleaze, chaos, and now cover-up. Millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been wasted or trousered by cronies of the Mayor. And we now have the police called in to investigate the Mayor’s chief police adviser."

Boris Johnson on green issues

The Times' Sam Coates identifies the following Boris quotes from yesterday's mayoral debate on green issues:

Taxing 4x4s: "The mayor's latest initiative on gas guzzlers. I think anyone who has studied it will know it is politically very interesting but environmentally marginal."

Domestic flights: "Domestic flights in this country are a crime, they are a sin. You will not find, under a Johnson mayoralty, 381 officials taking flights within this country. That's absolutely criminal."

Teaching Livingstone to cycle: "You should even at this stage show initiative and learn to ride a bike, and I am willing to give you free lessons in completely safety. I think it would be high time like you experience the full horror of trying to overtake a bendy bus."

More from Sam Coates here.  Steve Richards also reviewed the debate.

Also on the Mayoral race Iain Dale has a very good 'vote for Boris' article in The Daily Telegraph.

PoliticalBetting.com note that the British Polling Council is investigating Ken Livingstone's possible misuse of an opinion poll on the congestion charge.