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Livingstone launches bid for third term

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18/03/2008 20:44

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - London Mayor Ken Livingstone said on Tuesday his campaign to win a third term will be the biggest challenge of his career after polls put him behind his Conservative rival at the formal start of the City Hall race.

With the 2012 Olympics looming and huge public transport works planned, Livingstone said the stakes for London were "incredibly high" at the May 1 elections.

The mayor and Tory Boris Johnson will compete for votes on issues ranging from crime and affordable housing to public transport and plans to charge drivers of big cars 25 pounds to enter the city.

Livingstone accuses Johnson of having backward-looking policies that would damage the capital, while the Conservative says it is time for a change after eight years.

"I’ve said all along that this is going to be the toughest political fight of my life," the mayor told reporters at the Royal Festival Hall, overlooking the River Thames.

"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."

An Evening Standard poll put Johnson in the lead on 49 percent, Livingstone on 37 percent and Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick, a former Deputy Assistant Commissioner with the Metropolitan Police, on 12 percent.

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Johnson accused Livingstone of being rooted in the "1980s politics of division" and promised to bring a fresh approach to the job if he wins.

"His administration is increasingly tired, out of touch, stale and lacking in fresh thinking," Johnson told reporters at a news conference at County Hall, former headquarters of the Greater London Council, which Livingstone ran in the 1980s.

"I want to bring a new administration of optimism, energy and creativity."

Both candidates’ manifestos focused on issues such as transport, housing and crime.

The mayor pledged to add an extra 1,000 police in the next year, give 24-hour free travel for disabled people and the elderly and to push ahead with plans to impose a 25-pound congestion charge on cars with high-emissions from October.

Johnson said his priority would be to cut crime, by hiring more police with money saved from slashing bureaucracy. He would also scrap the proposed 25 pounds charge.

Paddick said recent by-election results suggested that the Liberal Democrats are ahead of Labour and the Conservatives.

"I have the capability and leadership to deliver real change," he said. "Londoners want a clean pair of hands they can trust running their city."

* For all the latest news, blogs and pictures from the mayoral race, visit http://uk.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/mayor

(Editing by Steve Addison)