London’s Liberal Democrats have today started their contests to find candidates for next year’s Mayor of London and London Assembly elections.
The deadline for interested runners to submit their application is 22nd June.
At the most recent City Hall elections the party chose former Met police officer Brian Paddick as its mayoral candidate.
In 2012 Paddick was beaten into fourth place by the Green party’s Jenny Jones and presided over a campaign which saw the party’s London Assembly representation fall to just 2 seats – down from the 5 seats won in 2004.
Some insiders have previously complained that the failure to include the Mayoral candidate on the slate of Assembly hopefuls gives them little reason to maximise the number of seats the party wins on the body.
Although no candidates have formally declared an interest, it’s expected that current Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon will enter the race in the coming days.