Eight years ago I strongly backed Frank Dobson’s campaign to stop Ken Livingstone becoming Labour candidate for mayor of London. Four years ago I publicly called for Livingstone to be blocked from readmission to the Labour party. This year I have no hesitation in backing Ken’s re-election. I will be campaigning for him as hard as I can and I would urge other Labour modernisers to do the same.
Endorsing Ken does not mean forgetting the past or ignoring his faults and foibles. I can’t forgive him for his often sectarian role in London Labour politics, for his coup against Andrew McIntosh to take over the GLC, or for standing against Labour as an independent. By endorsing him I am not condoning some of the silly gesture politics he still indulges in on Cuba, Venezuela or the Middle East.
But both Livingstone’s record on the core responsibilities he has as mayor, and the nature of his opponent, mean that despite the extensive political baggage he carries, he deserves the enthusiastic support this time round of the entire Labour party, whether New Labour or old.
Ken’s actual administration of London as mayor has been admirable and wholly consistent with the national priorities of the Labour government. He has invested massively in public transport. As a bus user in a borough with no tube stations I – and the 60 per cent of Hackney residents with no car – have benefited from far more frequent and more modern buses, new routes to isolated parts of the borough, and we will soon get the tube coming to Dalston with the East London Line Extension. The ELLX showed Ken as a pragmatist on working with the private sector to fund new projects.
As a ward councillor I have seen the impact of the new Police Community Safety Teams funded by Ken on crime and the fear of crime among my constituents. Having a dedicated team of a sergeant, two PCs and three PCSOs in the ward has really made a difference.
On the environment, Ken’s innovative congestion charge, while it hasn’t banished traffic jams from central London, has slowed a trend that would have led to complete gridlock and consequent dangerous levels of emissions.
On housing, Ken’s 50 per cent target for affordable housing has ensured that the regeneration that is going on across London will include social and intermediate ownership homes that ordinary Londoners can actually afford.
All this is put at risk by Boris Johnson’s candidature. Johnson is a Thatcherite buffoon. But he is a popular and therefore dangerous one. He would scrap the 50 per cent affordable housing target. His proposals on buses would drive fares up by 50 per cent. He is so disinterested in the regeneration of London that he did not even vote on the Crossrail bill, the single most important transport link for the regeneration of east London. He opposes the Kyoto climate change treaty. His history of ill-judged remarks on race would damage community relations in our multicultural city.
What’s more, a defeat for Ken won’t be portrayed as a defeat for ‘old Labour’ or the Labour left, it will be portrayed as a defeat for the Labour government and Gordon Brown and massively boost David Cameron in the run up to the general election.
We face a clear choice on 1 May between a progressive Labour mayor and a reactionary Tory one. Between now and then we all have a duty to canvass, to leaflet and to spread the message that only a Labour mayor and assembly will deliver for Londoners.