Ken Livingstone launches Mayor of London re-election bid » Communities » 24dash.com

Ken Livingstone launched his bid to be re-elected as Mayor on May 1 with a wide-ranging speech describing London’s achievements over the last eight years, and setting out new pledges for transport, housing, crime, the environment and community relations.

He delivered a clear warning about the 'high stakes for London' from what he claimed was a 'backward looking' agenda represented by his Tory opponent Boris Johnson.

Ken Livingstone said: "There is a majority in London that wants to keep moving our city forward - economically, socially, in a multicultural city and on the environment. If that majority votes on May 1st it will win again.

"I believe Londoners do not want to turn the clock back –they want to continue to work together to make London better in the way they have in the last eight years.’

He said that the spirit of London was shown in July 2005.

"London’s achievements are no where more clearly shown than those of the summer of 2005. We won the Olympic Games, showing London’s ambition, youth and diversity.

"We showed the world how to tackle with pride our worst moments – such as the way this city responded to the terrorist atrocity of 7 July 2005."

Ken Livingstone also claimed that London’s opportunities were now greater than ever.

"I have never known a time when the possibilities for this city and its people are so immense."

He also warned that the election showed clear choices for London.

"This election is not celebrity big brother. It is about the most serious issues and the future of our city."

He set out seven areas where the choices were clear, saying ‘the stakes for the future of London are very high.’

He said the seven points where there were clear choices were:

On Crossrail

Ken Livingstone said: "The £16 billion Crossrail project is the biggest transport scheme in Europe. It can transform London’s transport for the better or destroy the finances of the city for many years.

"As Mayor I fought for that £16 billion for London. Finally after twenty years of talking about it we are going to do it.

"Boris Johnson couldn’t be bothered to vote on it in Parliament and from his transport manifesto we learn that he still doesn’t know who owns it."

Mr Livingstone also pointed to the £100million hole in Boris Johnson’s bus policy as an indication of the importance of running transport competently.

On the Tube

Ken Livingstone said: "The £1 billion a year modernisation of the Tube and the effective handling of the failed Metronet contracts can transform one of our city’s biggest transport assets.

"But if it is handled badly Londoners will pay huge sums for nothing.

"Boris Johnson dismissed my attempt to avoid the Metronet fiasco as mere “ideological warfare”.

"From his transport plans nobody knows what he plans to do with the Tube."

On affordable homes for Londoners

Ken Livingstone said: "Over eight years we have doubled house building in London from 17,000 a year to 33,000 a year.

"Affordable house building is rising at the same time. 

"We achieved this through the policy that half of new housing in London must be affordable to rent and buy but Boris Johnson wants to abolish that fifty per cent policy.

"It would block London families from having real opportunities to get affordable housing and price housing even more out of the hands of ordinary Londoners.’

On crime and policing

Ken Livingstone said: "Crime has been cut every year for five years, with last year’s fall being the largest yet.

"This has been achieved because hard decisions have been taken to pay for increased police numbers.

"Boris Johnson calls for big ticket savings in the police budget. The Tory leader on the Assembly Richard Barnes says we are spending too much on police officers.

"Cutting crime for five years in a row needed serious decisions. Londoners wanted it and I have delivered it."

On good community relations

Ken Livingstone said: "Twenty-five years ago London saw riots in Brixton and Broadwater Farm. An enormous effort, working with community leaders over two decades, and big changes to the Met, have moved London forward.

"The result is that racist attacks are down by over half – when elsewhere they are up.

"But in contrast Boris Johnson’s campaign uses the right wing dog-whistle politics that attack “political correctness."

On road safety

Ken Livingstone said: "Five hundred less children are killed and seriously injured a year as a result of the policies we have pursued. A forward thinking vision of London helps our children to be safe.

"I won’t be taking us backwards - I will work with the boroughs to make all residential streets 20 mph zones, not abandon the progress that has seen real reductions in accidents and deaths."

On the environment

Ken Livingstone said: "Nothing shows the difference between my approach and the anti-green policies and wrong priorities of Boris Johnson as clearly as his opposition to my introducing a £25 charge on gas guzzlers.

"Who comes first? I put first the three-fifths of Londoners who want their environment protected and the £30million a year the charge will raise used for public transport, cycling and walking.

"Boris Johnson puts first a small selfish minority who want to drive around the city in gas guzzlers and for others to pay for the pollution they create.

"No one needs a Humvee to go to the shops."

Ken Livingstone also set out his key policy commitments for the coming term.

These included:

• Continue investing to transform London's transport system - continue improving bus services, modernise the Tube, build Crossrail and improve London rail services through London Overground to raise service and safety standards, while holding down fares.
• Continue the six per cent reduction in crime each year - add a further 1,000 police over the next year to London's existing record police numbers and maintain a dedicated police team in every neighbourhood.
• Safeguard the policy that 50 per cent of new homes should be affordable homes; build a minimum fifty thousand new affordable homes in the next three years.
• Introduce 24 hour operation of the Freedom Pass - giving older and disabled Londoners free travel before 9am and throughout the day.
• Extend the student travel discount to Oyster One Day Travelcards; maintain free travel for under-18s on the buses.
• Maintain good community relations - continue to reduce racist attacks, which are now down more than fifty per cent.
• Youth centres for our young people - a £78m programme to set up youth centres and improve youth services throughout London to provide safe facilities outside school hours.
• A £25 a day charge for high carbon-emitting gas guzzlers to enter the central London congestion zone and no charge for the greenest cars, with a London-wide Low Emission Zone to keep the worst polluting lorries out of London.

Ken Livingstone said: "These new commitments to Londoners, building on what has been achieved together, will help keep London successful, ensure that Londoners share in that success, and help protect London’s environment and quality of life.

"If we want new policies such as these over the next four years then we need the biggest possible vote on May 1st to keep London on path forward it has been pursuing."