It’s now less than a week to go to the London mayoral election and it’s is a two-horse race between the Conservative incumbent, Boris Johnson and the former mayor and Labour candidate, Ken Livingstone.
In the polls, Ken is behind, somewhere between 2 and 10 points behind according to the latest figures. This is surprising when the same polls suggest the Conservatives are 15 points behind in London and set to get hammered in the local elections. This is down to two factors, Boris’s charisma and Ken’s cronyism.
Ken has brushed off Labour supporters voting against him (up to one in five is expected to vote for Boris). ‘They are only voting for Boris because he makes them laugh’, says Ken. This is only partly true. Yes, Boris’s charisma and flair are a factor, but so is Ken. Many voters simply can’t bring themselves to vote for Ken because they don’t trust him and you can’t blame them.
Whatever side of the political spectrum you come from, it’s vital that we hold our politicians to account. In my eyes, Ken has been slippery and divisive at best. A self-confessed political nerd, he is everything which is wrong in modern politics today. He will do or say anything to win. It says a lot that many senior figures in the Labour party not only won’t offer their support for him, but are actively risking their own standing in the party to campaign against him.
“In my opinion he is a driven, power-crazed egomaniac who will do anything to regain the power he once had,” says Lord Sugar.
He is “quite a tricky sort of customer” who has “espoused some disastrous causes,” says another Labour peer, Robert Winston.
Here’s a top 10 of Ken gaffes, cronyism, hypocrisy and champagne socialism:
- Ken was heavily criticised in February 2005 for remarks made to an Evening Standard reporter. He compared him to a Nazi concentration camp guard, after the Jewish reporter had tried to interview him. Ken refused to apologise or retract the statement after the reporter let it be known he was Jewish.
- In December 2007, the Evening Standard published news of an investigation into grants worth £2.5 million paid to organisations in which Ken Livingstone’s adviser Lee Jasper was involved. It is confirmed that some of these grants were paid directly by the mayor’s office. An independent report into the affair by auditor Michael Haworth-Maden in July 2009 found no evidence of “misappropriation of funds” but noted “significant” gaps in financial paperwork.
- Livingstone was criticised following a 21 March 2006 press conference at which he is alleged to have said of David and Simon Reuben — two Indian-born Jewish businessmen involved in a property development project — that “if they’re not happy they can always go back to Iran and see if they can do better under the Ayatollahs.”
- Following Livingstone’s defeat in the 2008 Mayoral Elections, the Daily Mail reported that “eight ‘cronies’ of Ken were to receive £1.6 million in pay-offs following his defeat in the London mayoral elections.”
- Livingstone has been criticised for his links to Islamic extremism. He was heavily condemned for inviting Islamic scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi to a conference. Al-Qaradawi has been accused of supporting “female genital mutilation, wife-beating, and the execution of homosexuals.”
- In a meeting, Ken is alleged to have said that he did not expect the Jewish community to vote Labour as votes for the left are inversely proportional to wealth levels. He supposedly suggested that as the Jewish community is rich they simply wouldn’t vote for him.
- Ken has been accused of hypocrisy over his tax affairs. He was very critical of wealthy Londoners who used companies to lower the rate of tax they were paying. It subsequently transpired he was doing exactly the same himself through the company Silveta Ltd.
- Ken used private healthcare despite claiming to be a strong proponent of the NHS.
- Ken cried over a campaign film of ‘ordinary Londoners’, arguing why they wanted Ken as mayor. It subsequently transpired the film was scripted and made using paid actors. Both of which Ken knew about.
- Ken’s trip to Cuba and aborted journey to Venezuela in 2006 cost Londoners £30,000 according to assembly figures. Just one of many wasteful incidents.
The Labour party fearfully nominated Ken as their candidate and it may cost them. They still have bad memories from 2001 when they didn’t give Ken the nomination and he won a stunning victory against them as an independent.
They feared Ken running as an independent again, splitting their vote, and handing Boris an easy victory. Nevertheless, the decision to choose Ken may yet haunt them. One can’t help thinking that any other half-decent candidate would have had a very good chance of beating Boris. Figures like Ken have no place in modern politics. If we vote for them, we get what we deserve.
