Jowell leads the pack in close London Mayoral race, as LabourList readers back Brown

London Mayor – a close race

Over the past couple of months, there’s been some developments in relation to Labour’s candidate for London Mayor. Tessa Jowell and David Lammy thrown their names into the hat (joining Christian Wolmar) to be Labour’s candidate, and Diane Abbott looks like she will join them. So we wanted to know which candidate (and potential candidates) you would like to be Labour’s choice for Mayor.

Last time we did this poll Sadiq Khan came out on top with 22%, followed by Tessa Jowell on 17% and Diane Abbot on 15%. But things are looking a little different now that Khan is the only likely frontrunner not to declare or make a clear indication that he’ll be running.

This time round Tessa Jowell has come out on top with 19% of the vote. Not too far behind her is Diane Abbott with 14%, and Margaret Hodge on 13%. However, Khan – perhaps because he’s yet to announce his candidacy – has dropped from first place to fourth on 12% of the vote.

In fifth place is Doreen Lawrence (who has yet to said anything about the Mayoral race) with 10% and just behind her is David Lammy – who was the first candidate after Christian Wolmar to declare he’d be running – who’s on 8%. A further 8% of our readers said they didn’t know who they’d back and 7% wouldn’t opt for any of the potential candidates. At the bottom of the table are Christian Wolmar and Andrew Adonis who both scored 4%.

All of this shows that although there are some clear frontrunners – there’s still all to play for.

East Coast should be owned by everyone

Last week saw the Government sell off the publicly owned East Coast franchise to private companies Virgin and Stagecoach – after refusing to allow the public sector operator to take part in bidding.

In response, the Labour Party have launched a campaign to put a stop to the privatisation of East Coast. But we wanted to know what you thought was the best future for East Coast.

Unsurprisingly, an overwhelming majority – 82% – reflect polling done by Survation and say that they would rather East Coast was publicly owned. A small but not insignificant number would like to see a combination of both private and public ownership while a very low – 2% – seem to be in line with Government policy and would like the franchise to be privately owned. And only 1% don’t know. What this shows is that there’s a strong appetite amongst our readers for East Coast to remain in public hands.

Brown – how will he be remembered?

Earlier this week, Gordon Brown announced that he would be stepping down as an MP at the next general election. And as Mark Ferguson noted earlier in the week – Brown is a politician most have firms views on. But among LabourList readers are they positive or negative views?

62% of readers thought the former. Although Brown’s time as PM was chequered to say the least, it seems he will be remembered well – as a strong Chancellor,for arguably keeping the country afloat during the financial crash and who played a passionate role in the Better Together campaign.

However, for 20% Browns political careers was a negative one – perhaps unsurprising consider Labour’s 2010 election result. For 15% Brown’s legacy is mixed – they said his time as a politician will be seen as neither positive nor negative.

962 people voted in our survey this week. Thanks to everyone who took part