Tessa Jowell still ahead in mayoral race, poll shows

The Evening Standard have released the results of their latest Mayoral poll, to see who Londoners would most like to be Labour’s candidate. And it’s good news for Tessa Jowell.

Since YouGov last did this poll for the Standard, Margaret Hodge and Andrew Adonis have dropped out the race (the former hasn’t formally backed anyone yet, while the latter has thrown his weight behind Jowell).

YouGov asked 1,011 people who they thought the best candidate would be for mayor. They excluded all of the ‘don’t knows’ and ‘none of the aboves’ to give us the following results.

Jowell is, again, ahead of the rest of the pack. 34% of Labour supporters when Jowell to be Labour’s candidate, while 32% of all Londoners think the same.

In second place is Shadow London Minister, Sadiq Khan. A higher proportion of Londoners think he should be the candidate than Labour supporters, at 21% and 19% respectively. Meanwhile, Diane Abbott has seen a substantial increase in support – both from Londoners and Labour supporters. She’s now on 17% among Londoners and 18% among Labour supporters up by 3 and 6 points respectively.

In fourth and fifth place are Doreen Lawrence and David Lammy, who are are roughly level pegging at 14% and 13% respectively – both with Londoners and Labour supporters.

In last place is the only candidate who isn’t a politician, Christian Wolmar. Wolmar, who is a transport expert and journalist, is on 4% with both sets of people asked.

Not all of these candidates will necessarily run. Abbott, Jowell, Lammy and Wolmar have all said they will but it looks like Lawrence won’t – if that is the case, who she and Hodge will back (if Lawrence decides to do this) remains unclear and could make all the difference.

What’s more Gareth Thomas MP said he might announce that he’s running after the election.

So what all of this tells us is that nothing is set in stone…