[A-List] UK state: London mayoral election

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

The enemy at the gates

New Labour sectarians are prepared to hand our capital city to the Tories
rather than see me re-elected

Ken Livingstone
Monday October 7, 2002
The Guardian

If anyone still believed that Labour policy was set by opinion polls, focus
groups and a desire to win at any cost, this year's party conference should
have finally disabused them. Two policies, war with Iraq and PFI, were
rigidly pursued despite their overwhelming unpopularity with the public. As
the polls clearly show Labour support is declining - despite the
Conservatives' best attempts to convince voters they are the contemporary
embodiment of the Mad Hatter's tea party - that gives me no pleasure
whatever.

One of New Labour's central claims in opposition was that Labour's left
refused to face the facts of public opinion and was prepared to destroy
Labour as a governing party in pursuit of unpopular dogma. In reality, Tory
dominance from 1979-97 was rooted in other factors. But the charge of
risking the exclusion of your own party from power in pursuit of narrow
sectarian interests is a serious one.

One side-effect of devolution is that it is now possible to test in practice
the popularity of different political strategies. In Scotland, Labour has
seen off both nationalists and Tories by adopting more radical policies in
education and health, reaching out to those who want a more progressive
social agenda, and been electorally reinvigorated as a result.

But in London, the other test-bed of devolution, sections of the Labour
party have failed to absorb these lessons. Labour in London has not seen a
revival: it suffered a mayoral debacle in 2000, the Tories gained two seats
at the general election, and the party lost control of a series of councils
in May. As London is the biggest electoral swing area in the UK, this is of
national significance.

Part of that damage was, of course, self-inflicted in the transparently
rigged Labour mayoral selection that both forced me to leave the party and
repelled the electorate. Two years on, I had hoped it would be possible to
put an end to the sectarian course that that culminated in New Labour
spindoctors briefing national newspapers to support the Conservative
candidate Steve Norris. In contrast to the claims about the left, this was a
concrete case of a narrow party faction being prepared to turn our largest
city over to the Tories.

It would be nice to imagine that this self-destructive, sectarian frenzy had
been abandoned - were it not for the fact that Peter Mandelson rather
unfortunately chose to speak at a fringe meeting last week with Norris,
describing him as "the best mayor we never had".

D uring and since the mayoral election, I have done everything possible to
minimise damage to Labour: urging a second preference vote for Frank Dobson,
refusing to run candidates for the London Assembly, appointing Labour
members to senior positions in my administration, campaigning for Labour at
general and local elections, and forging positive relationships with Labour
MPs and council leaders.

I have done so because Labour remains the organised core of any progressive
alliance in London - whatever differences there are on issues such as the
PPP on the underground. I would have preferred to be Labour's candidate for
mayor at the next election. But since that was blocked, I regard coalition
with Labour as guaranteeing that social democratic values continue to guide
London's politics.

Fortunately, London has a first and second preference voting system that
makes it simple to block a Conservative mayoral victory. Provided the Labour
candidate and I both call for a second preference vote for each other, as
London's deputy mayor, Nicky Gavron, is doing in Labour's selection contest,
it will be impossible in current conditions for a Tory mayor to be elected.
But this is clearly unwelcome both to the Tories and the narrow faction
within Labour that has shown it would rather turn the city over to the
Conservatives than see me continue as mayor.

So "manna from heaven" was Steve Norris's description of Tony Banks's
decision to stand for selection as Labour's mayoral candidate. The political
commentator Simon Jenkins reckoned it was "the best news the Tory party has
had in London for years".

The reason Norris recognised manna was explained by Tony Banks when he
declared: "The second preference is a matter for voters in London. You can't
start directing your supporters to do anything at all." Or as he put it to
Labour party members: "we shouldn't get too worked up about the Tories, I
don't see them as a great threat."

The Tory press has therefore mobilised to support Tony Banks in Labour's
selection. This is not because Tony Banks wants to help the Tories - he
doesn't - but because the only way the Conservatives can win is if my and
Labour's supporters don't cast a second preference vote for each other.

Labour's mayoral selection contest is local, but reflects a national choice.
In the specific circumstances in London Nicky Gavron proposes a bloc to
ensure that whether she or I win, Labour values and a progressive coalition
will steer the city. That is why I support her. In London it is not the left
that is subordinating Labour to narrow sectarian concerns.

· Ken Livingstone is mayor of London