KEN LIVINGSTONE will be the Labour candidate to face Boris Johnson in the London Mayor election come 2012.


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A mostly popular Mayor between 2000 and 2008, Livingstone easily defeated former MP Oona King to the Labour nomination. The result was announced this morning, Friday 24 September.

King was regarded as the candidate favoured by Labour top brass, but was soundly beaten, Livingstone taking 68% of the vote.

Nevertheless, the party was quick to line up behind their man.

“The whole of Team Labour will be backing you,” said acting labour leader Harriet Harmann.

Livingstone plans to make government spending cuts the main issue in the 2012 election. He has already upped the ante in his attacks on Boris Johnson, calling the current Mayor “not honest”, “lazy” and someone who “has gone through life shambling like Bertie Wooste”.