Campaign news

LRC backs Ken Livingstone as Labour candidate for Mayor

9th August 2010

Vote Ken Livingstone for London Mayor

Members of the Labour Party and affiliated unions and societies in London will shortly be balloted on who should be the Party’s candidate for Mayor of London in the election to take place in 2012.

We urge everyone to vote for Ken Livingstone. During his terms as Mayor, Ken made great improvements in public transport around London, while opposing public-private partnerships, something in which his judgement has been fully borne out.

Livingstone has a record of opposing racism and has not made the concessions to racism that many Labour politicians have done. He promoted the annual anti-racist festival since scrapped by Boris Johnson. He also opposed Blair’s wars and worked hard to avert a racist backlash after the London bombings in July 2005. However, his defence of the police action in the aftermath of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes is a serious blot on this record.

Livingstone’s promise to work to protect Londoners from the effects of the ConDem government’s cuts in public spending is welcome, but in order to do so he must develop a more positive relationship with trades unions and their activists than was the case during his second term.

We encourage LRC supporters to support Ken Livingstone as the best Labour candidate standing for London Mayor.