London mayor election: David Lammy says the capital doesn’t need a “party stooge”
David Lammy has said that London needs a mayor who is "independent-minded" and "not a party stooge", as he set out his bid to replace Boris Johnson in City Hall.
He said he wanted to be London's next Labour mayor, who will focus on housing and tackling the "big equalities" in the city.
Read more: Who's running to be the next London Mayor?
The MP for Tottenham spoke of the "London of hardship" and the "London of opportunity", arguing that the capital needs a mayor who has experience of both.
Speaking to the BBC's Sunday Politics Programme, Lammy said:
None of [the Tory candidates], to be honest, send quakes through the Labour party.
If you believe passionately in London, you want someone who is independent-minded, not a party stooge or a party hack.
You want someone who can unite the city. My own view is let's move away from the blonde wit; let's get into the detail on housing. Let's also have a city that's about wealth creation and moving forward, but there are big inequalities in this city that need to be addressed.
And let's have a candidate that actually has some experience of what it means to both be in a London of hardship but to travel somewhere else that is the London of opportunity. That's the London that you want for all Londoners.
He said that Ken Livingstone's defeat in 2012 taught him that the "complacent assumption that London is a Labour city" is "not right". He said the party needs to pick the right candidate that speaks to the "whole city" in order to win.