Oona sets out her pitch to Londoners

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Today in Tribune Oona King has begun to lay out in greater detail her vision for the capital. As is perhaps to be expected, the pitch begins with what King sees as an advantage held over Livingstone – an appeal to outer London:

“London runs from Uxbridge to Upminster – and it is these areas that a Labour candidate has to win back in 2012. After all there are 4.4 million people who live in outer London, and only 2.8 million who inhabit the inner core.”

Perhaps consciously gravitating towards ground that Ken Livingstone had sought to make his own as Mayor, King drives home her belief in the importance of good quality affordable housing:

“I’m going to set out to make things fairer. Let’s start with housing. Give people a decent home and you give them dignity. Their children flourish. I believe that housing is as important a “public service” as schools and hospitals, yet when we use the term “public service” we often only mean the later two.”

Transport is another area on which King had been accused of being light on policy. However, in her article she covered something which is a major cause of conjestion in inner London – and which isn’t a central part of the debate at present:

“The school run causes 20 per cent of London’s congestion. We need a school bus system across the city. This is something I will make happen. Forget about the old arguments about the bendy bus and the Routemaster. The future is school buses. And I shall be the Mayor to deliver them.”

Today’s article is a smart move from Oona, and combines what her supporters see as her advantage over Livingstone, with a movement towards more concrete policy positions. However, it’s notable in an article that dwells so much of housing that King doesn’t put a figure on how much – or, more importantly, what percentage – of new housing she wants to be affordable.

However, as nominations close today, and the campaign gets tougher, we’re going to need see more policy detail from Oona – but we also need to know what plans Ken has to win over the voters that he lost, or perhaps never reached, during his eight years at City Hall.