Boris takes lead in mayoral poll

With just two more days to London Mayoral elections, Conservative candidate Boris Johnson takes the lead on several polls, with a probable cruise to being re-elected Mayor of London on 3^rd May.

The latest YouGov poll for the Evening Standard put Johnson on 44% and Labour candidate Ken Livingstone on 41%, with Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick on 6%. Once second preference votes are allocated, Johnson has a four-point lead over rival Livingstone: 52% of those polled said they would give Johnson their second preference vote while 48% of them backed Livingstone. The poll results were based on the answers of 1,231 London adults, conducted from 27-30 April.

The Conservative incumbent is also a frontrunner in another mayoral poll. ComRes, a poll jointly commissioned by the Standard, LBC and ITV London, showed Johnson was in an eight-point lead in the mayoral voting intention. The poll showed that 54% of those polled would vote Johnson and 46% of them would vote Livingstone in the event of no overall winner in the first round.

Johnson, 47, dismissed the BBC’s investigation of his attempts to secure commercial deals with News International during the last week of his election campaign. Elected to Parliament in 2001, Johnson defeated Livingstone in 2008’s mayoral election.

“Next year, there will be 1000 more police on the street. Crime overall will down about 9%. After years of procrastination, we have secured an upgrade of our tube network. In spite of economic difficulties, we have frozen the council tax”, Johnson vowed in an electoral campaign video.

Ken Livingstone, 66, was first elected as a Mayor of London in 2000. If re-elected, he pledges to do everything he can “to protect Londoners from the recession and the effects of the government’s policies”.

Johnson was seen as the best candidate at tackling crime by 29% of those polled, compared to Livingstone’s 21%, with former Metropolitan Police officer Paddick on 19%, according to YouGov.

According to the ComRes poll, Johnson was ahead of Livingstone in the following areas: protecting the interests of the city of London (30% ahead), making it safer to cycle in London (29% ahead), expanding London’s airport capacity (25% ahead) and making London a better place to run a business (23% ahead).

Other mayoral candidates include Green Party candidate Jenny Jones, Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick, British National Party candidate Carlos Cortiglia, Lawrence Webb from UK Independence Party and Siobhan Benita running as an independent candidate.

Queenie Man