David Lammy announces his intention to stand for London Mayor

David Lammy has announced he will seek the Labour nomination for London Mayor. In an interview in tonight’s Evening Standard (not online yet – news story here), the Tottenham MP explained his vision for the capital:

“The kind of mayoralty that I want is one that extends opportunity to all Londoners.” 

“At its best this is a city of opportunity, as it was for my parents. But I worry whether that prosperity is now available to everyone.”

He said that he was “at the centre of politics” and said that the major flaw of previous mayors Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson is that they only appealed to “part of London and not for all”.

Lammy is the second candidate in the Labour selection race. Transport journalist Christian Wolmar has already declared, while Tessa Jowell, Diane Abbott, Sadiq Khan, and Andrew Adonis are all thought to be mulling over bids.

Lammy was born in north London to Guyanese parents, has been the Labour MP for Tottenham since 2000, and was the Secretary of State for Innovation Universities and Skills in the last Government. Over the past few months, he has made headlines for slamming Nigel Farage as “racist” (a decidedly harder line than the Labour leadership took) and by backing all-minority ethnic shortlists. If he was sucessful, he would be London’s first black Mayor.