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Murad Qureshi |
The agenda for the capital is set
How will new Mayor of London fare?
Let’s see how the Conservative manifesto promises pan out, says assembly member Murad Qureshi
IT was a sad scene on the night of the count, seeing Ken leaving the institution he did so much to give a profile and such energy over the past eight years.
For my generation of Londoners growing up in London during the 1980s, he had been our political compass and gave us our bearings, very often in all sorts of political matters beyond just local government.
Saying this, Ken and the Labour Party in London did much better then the party did nationally on the May 1.
Ken’s first preference total was 36 per cent and much the same as his percentage in 2004, that is 12 per cent higher than Labour’s national score. Moreover the Labour vote in Labour actually went up across the whole of London to 28 per cent from 24 per cent in 2004, and in so doing allowing us to gain an additional seat in Brent & Harrow; holding onto Enfield & Haringey; increasing our majorities in all our other GLA held constituencies and finally holding on to our two seats from the party top-list where l myself came through again.
This reflects well on the progressive coalition and policies that Ken presented on transport, policing, housing and finally privatisation and redistribution. This was clearly more popular than that been offered in other parts of the country by Labour and clearly gives an indication of the way the party needs to go with this progressive premium.
It was just that the Tory vote came out much more strongly then we anticipated both in the suburbs and central London. Boris Johnson got 42 per cent of the first preferences and when the second preferences were distributed it was 47 per cent and 53 per cent to Johnson. All this while the Lib Dem vote took a hammering both in the mayoral and London Assembly contest. Its vote on the London Assembly went down by 6.88 per cent compared with that of 2004, and such haemorrhaging of their vote cost them two seats.
The best example of the suburban vote was an over 50 per cent turnout in Bexley & Bromley where more then 50 per cent voted Tory as well. In contrast in the City & East London the turnout was in the region of 39 per cent. It’s such margins which made the difference for the Tories.
Furthermore, the smaller parties like Respect and Christian Alliance did not fare well at all but for the far-right breakthrough for the BNP who polled 5.3 per cent, for their first member on the assembly.
This is a return to the peak of far right support in the 1970s at the Greater London Council elections of May 1977. where the National Front polled 5.23 per cent but because voting was first-past-the-post did not get anybody onto the GLC.
After that the combination of the NF disintegrating internally and Margaret Thatcher coming into power in 1979 stopped the move further towards the far-right.
This is clearly one battle which keeps occurring ever so often and one we need to make sure we fight at all times and not just at elections.
Finally the Greens again held up well with their usual 8 per cent in the London Assembly for their two assembly members while interestingly their mayoral vote goes down to about 3 per cent with clearly most of the 5 per cent difference going to Ken in first preferences.
In West Central where I contested the election, we had a 48.5 per cent turnout and managed to increase the Labour vote by just over 3 per cent from 2004 with a total nearer to Ken’s total vote in 2004.
At the same time we saw the Tory vote increase by a greater percentage, so it was not just “outer London wot won it” for Johnson and the Tories, while Ken’s vote remains 12,000 higher then the Labour vote in this constituency.
In Barnet and Camden we had a similiar story with a turnout of just under 48 per cent and Nicky Gavron the Labour candidate increasing the vote by just over 4 per cent.
At the same time the Tory vote went up by a greater percentage, as the higher turnout favoured them.
Rest assure that I will continue the fight in the GLA, remembering that the battle may have been lost but not the war.
Much of what Johnson does over the next four years will anyway be undertaken within an agenda and context set by the outgoing mayor.
So bring on the 2012 election which will be just before the Olympic games in London and let’s see how he handles this and other big projects:
n like Crossrail during an economic downturn;
n deliveries on his manifesto promises like when is he going to get rid of the bendy buses; bringing the Routemaster buses back and negotiating a no-strike agreement with the RMT trade union;
n and helping to promote London as a global city.
After the honeymoon period is over during the summer, that is how he’ll be judged and also give us some insight into how a David Cameron Conservative adminstration may be run as well. |
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