Daily Research News Online no. 8277 - London Election 'Farce' Continues

London Election 'Farce' Continues

April 28 2008

A spokeswoman for incumbent London Mayor Ken Livingstone has denounced as 'farcical' figures from pollsters YouGov, which suggest rival candidate Boris Johnson has widened his lead from six to ten points.

The Livingstone campaign spokeswoman told the Evening Standard newspaper (www.thisislondon.co.uk ) 'This is a farcical poll which will do deep damage to the reputation of YouGov when the actual result is announced on 1 May.'

Tables for the YouGov results are available at www.yougov.com/extranets/ygarchives/content/pdf/London080425.pdf . In February, a row over contradictory polls over Londoners' views of the C-Charge centred around claims by Porsche Cars GB that Livingstone had not released the full tables from surveys conducted by Ipsos-MORI.

There are just three days to go until the elections, which in addition to a Mayor will elect thousands of local councillors across the nation. Last week a market researcher admitted throwing a foam 'stress ball' at Respect MP George Galloway as the latter campaigned for his assembly seat from an open-top election bus.

The latest mayoral poll suggested tory candidate Johnson had 'raced ahead' of Livingstone, with 46% to Livingstone's 35% of first preference votes, and 55% to 45% counting second preference votes in an 'almost inevitable run-off', said the Standard.

It's not all bad news for the Mayor - YouGov found that 13% of voters said they 'still didn't know' who they'd vote for, and some other recent surveys have given Livingstone a slight lead. London is home to around two thirds of the UK MR industry, the world's second largest, and is therefore likely to contain more market researchers than any other city on earth: it's no wonder we have some slight differences of opinion about our opinion polls.

The firm, which polled 1,138 people online between 23rd and 25th April, is on the web at www.yougov.com .