A serious selection, and a serious candidate for London

By Claude Moraes MEP

As someone who has to face a One Member One Vote ballot of all London Labour Party members preceded by a trigger ballot of all 72 London CLPs before I can stand as a Labour MEP candidate for London, I don’t want to see a ‘coronation‘ for any Labour candidate seeking to represent London. I welcome the fact, then, that there will be a contest to select our Labour candidate for London mayor, and of the declared candidates I believe Ken Livingstone represents our best and most serious chance to retake London.

When London Labour Party members consider who is best to remove Boris Johnson, they should first look at Ken’s launch. It wasn’t at a lectern backed by the great and good; it was on the streets of Croydon – the latest signal that Ken understands where and why we lost parts of outer London, and where we need to reconnect.

Expect to see from Ken Livingstone’s campaign a serious strategy to address this vital lesson, and expect to see too an energetic bid to maintain and increase support amongst the progressive voters of London. How many elections do we have to fight to understand that London votes differently from any other region in the UK? We have more white Labour supporters who make that choice irrespective of their social class, and crucially we have maintained the support of London’s ethnically diverse communities – this was clear in the general election and in the London boroughs we won last month, in the European elections last year and, of course, in the last mayoral elections.

So, if London Labour party members choose Ken Livingstone – what will they get? I believe they will get someone who understands that Londoners, too, face recession and will feel ConDem cuts acutely – and that means paying attention to the detail of people’s lives in London. Protecting the fare payer, a return to investment in our public services and housing become even more critical as national cuts deepen.

Ken will also give clarity to Labour’s message for the future, and present unapologetically Labour’s achievements in our first two terms – from safer neighbourhood teams and expansion of the bus network to securing the Olympics for London.

Conventional political wisdom may say that you need a ‘change’ candidate to tackle Boris. But there has been nothing conventional about the way the London mayoralty has developed. Ken is in essence a ‘coalition age’ politician – able to appeal to liberal idealists, greens, working class Londoners, and ethnic minorities. In my opinion he has led, and not followed, on key issues for London – such as climate change, and equalities.

If he is selected, I’m confident that the 20 month campaign will adopt a positive strategy towards outer London, and crucially take apart the incoherence of the Boris mayoralty which has for too long been given a soft touch by the media.

This is an important moment for London. As a London party member I want someone who is a serious candidate for serious times, who has the clout to deliver, and one will have learned the lessons of our last defeat. For me, that candidate is Ken Livingstone.