Party members in London have not only to choose a new party leader, but also Labour’s candidate to take on Boris Johnson in the mayoral election in 2012. Many will be tempted to give Ken Livingstone an opportunity to avenge his defeat of two years ago. We believe they would be wrong to do so.
We fully accept the strength of Livingstone’s record as mayor – indeed, perhaps his greatest achievement was to make the new institution matter so much. But a rematch of the 2008 mayoral election would not be in Labour’s interests. We’ve seen little sign that Livingstone has understood the need to strengthen his appeal to the outer London suburbs – and to many white working-class voters in inner London – which played such a key role in ejecting him from office. Instead, Labour should turn the page in London and select Oona King. She has run a strong campaign for the nomination and shown she knows why Labour lost two years ago; Oona represents Labour’s best bet of beating Boris.