Former MP Oona King, who is challenging Ken Livingstone in the race to become Labour’s 2012 Mayoral candidate, today announced the backing of 11 London MPs and unveiled the first policies of her campaign.
The MPs endorsing King are: Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar & Limehouse), Stella Creasy (Walthamstow), Andrew Love (Edmonton), Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East), Oona King, Siobhan McDonagh (Mitcham & Morden), Kate Hoey (Vaushall), Mike Gapes (Ilford South) and Joan Ruddock (Lewisham Deptford).
Fitzpatrick said he and fellow backers were “convinced” that King offered London “a future where our prosperity and our incredible culture is shared and enjoyed by all; a less stressful place to live and work; and a city where in tough times communities are empowered to come together rather than drift apart.”
King said the endorsement of her former colleagues “shows how broad based my support is in the Labour movement in London, and I will show more evidence of that in the coming days”.
Today’s announcement comes just days before nominations close on June 18th with King and Livingstone the only declared candidates. The candidate will be decided in a postal ballot of Labour and union members with the result declared on 24th September.
Despite her campaign website stressing the need to move on from past, one of King’s flagship policies is a return to the Livingstone-era rule that 50% of all new homes be affordable.
She also undertook to create “a compulsory register” for private sector landlords which her campaign say would “set minimum housing standards.”