London Mayoral Election

Sorry given it little thought, we have enough problems with the Welsh government elections next month

Who ever wins London will not affect me but I hope Khan wins,

I'll be voting for Sadiq Khan he has worked hard to get where he is and his manifesto lists many of my concerns about young people in London, housing and he also wants to freeze fares for four years. He's got an uphill climb if he becomes mayor but he's a fighter used to working with people and getting results.

My vote will go to whoever keeps the "Freedom Pass" rules as they are. Considering we will have to work to 66 years, it would save us a lot of money on the daily commute. So far neither Khan nor Goldsmith has mentioned it.

Is there a favourite at the moment?

I think Sadiq Khan is in the lead at the moment don't seem to hear anything much from the other candidates..

Bookies have Sadiq Khan as favourite. I don't really like any of them. I am voting Green with maybe Womens Equality as a 2nd preference.

Well no news is good news Lille. Anniebach me too. I think Khan sounds like a good candidate while Goldsmith is like a character in a Jilly Cooper novel. (You know, the one that is about the children and grandchildren of the best selling one about all the marital dramas in the lives of Jimmy Goldsmith and his glamorous wife. And the other one about their daughter marrying a Pakistani cricketer turned politician) .

One heck of an argument at PMQs today.

Cameron said that Khan had met with an imam who was a friend of IS nine times.
The Labour party shouted him down.
The man involved has said he would take Cameron to court for defamation if he had said it outside the house.
This is why;

"However, Cameron’s claim came under pressure when Gani told LBC Radio that he backed the Tory candidate Dan Watkins last May against Khan in Tooting and even supplied canvassers for his campaign.

He added that, following the election, the Tories had asked him to help them find potential local councillors. He said felt he had been used by the Conservatives “as a scapegoat to discredit Sadiq Khan.”

Neil Coyle, a London Labour MP said: “The prime minister’s desperate dog-whistle has now totally backfired. “It now turns out that Suliman Gani campaigned for the Tories at the 2015 General Election, met Zac Goldsmith in November last year and campaigned against Sadiq Khan because of his support for same sex marriage.” "

I have noticed that Max Hastings has said the same in the DM, so it will be interesting to see if Suliman Gani sues the DM.

The press has published photographs of Goldsmith and the Iman and No.10 released a statement explaining Dave had been misunderstood , he didn't mean ISIS

One of my concerns about Khan is the fact he keeps saying he'll freeze fares and then has no really credible methodology for doing so. It sounds like an empty promise to me because the money will have to come from somewhere so I have a sneaking suspicion its a vote winner that will conveniently never happen or will cause other equally important actions to be negated.

We shall see

I have never voted for either of the two main parties and do not live in London, but after the disgraceful way Zac Goldsmith has been trying to tar Sadiq Khan for being a supporter of terror, presumably because he is muslim, I know of no greater incentive to vote for Khan.

twitter.com/sulimangani/status/723126830186811392/photo/1

Gani's response.
Andrew Neil said it as well, so it is in the hands of his lawyer. He says that people will believe it unless he gets a public retraction.

It is appalling to use parliamentary privilege to damage someone's character like that. Is desperation setting in camp Goldsmith? I seem to remember that London as a whole would have not voted the Tories in last May. Goldsmith does not have Johnson's cult of personality going for him does he.

What a choice!

It will be a numbers game like every election. And the make up of the London population only points one way.

What else do you expect it to be, Lilyflower?
It is actually a form of PR as opposed to first past the post, so second preferences could count, unless Khan gets over 50% on the first ballot.

I hope it never descends to patronage.

Zac Goldsmith has been a great MP for Richmond. He is the only MP in the last election to increase his majority significantly. He always responded positively to any constituent who contacted him, he is a tireless worker and it is not his fault that he has a privileged background.

I never liked Ken Livingstone but I did admire the way that he travelled by tube every day so had first hand knowledge of what the rest of the punters put up with on a daily basis struggling to get to work in central London.

I will be voting for Khan. He is not my favourite politician and I hope that he does not join the Progress clan in undermining Corbyn but is probably the best choice of those that have a chance of winning.
Goldsmith can't help his background but he does not have to use offshore companies to buy properties and he could explain the £300m he has in a Swiss account and whether he pays tax on it. It must affect his way of looking at the world. Being rich isn't inherently bad but inherited wealth at that level must at least give rise to a strong possibility of not understanding what things are like for the least fortunate? Why did he vote for disability cuts whilst being a patron of a disability charity? Why did he vote for the bedroom tax? It can only be because he has no idea how these things impact on people who need every penny.

I doubt those who are having their benefits reduced think him a good MP after he voted for the cuts

Wow this is electrifying I must read on.

Don't like either of them!! They both behave like squabbling children, and I cannot see that either of them will be good enough to be our Mayor! Sad lack of decent candidates...

They were both chosen out of a number of candidates from their respective parties. So some people must have faith in them.
Do you live in London, Christalbee?
Presumably you will be voting for one of the others, then.

www.politics.co.uk/news/2016/04/22/revealed-zac-goldsmith-repeatedly-lobbied-ministers-about-ba

Zac Goldsmith's selective memory.

Women's Equality Party have a candidate who I like the sound of.