After a week of negative and, in some cases, highly personal attacks by the media an ITV/YouGov poll suggests an increase in support for Ken Livingstone.
I’m not surprised. Though many in the anti-Ken camp will have hoped the reports would help oust him, the reality is that Londoners are so used to seeing Livingstone at the centre of a media storm that many will simply block them out if they ever come across them in the first place.
Voters may even conclude that he really is the victim of an orchestrated attempt to unseat him, something which would prove fatal for any opponent seeking to make capital from the reports.
So far Boris Johnson has largely resisted the urge to do so, it’s a strategy he’d be wise to continue with.
The humiliation of Frank Dobson after Labour fixed the selection process in 2000 tells us all we need to know about how Londoners react when they perceive an attempt to influence the outcome of their elections.
