Sadiq Khan on track for landslide London mayoral election win, says new poll
Sadiq Khan has extended his lead in the mayoral election race and is on track to score an easy victory, according to new polling.
The YouGov/Queen Mary University polling, released today, has Khan in first place with 49 per cent of first preference votes for the upcoming 7 May London mayor election.
That is four per cent more than in a November poll and almost enough to take the election in the first round of voting.
Taking second preferences into account, Khan would win the election in the second round of voting with 67 per cent of votes against Tory candidate Shaun Bailey who would have 33 per cent.
Bailey remains in second place with 24 per cent of first preferences, one per cent up from November, while independent candidate Rory Stewart has not managed to make any inroads since the last poll.
The new polling has the ex-Tory cabinet secretary stuck on 13 per cent, as he was in November.
Green Sian Berry remains stable on seven per cent, while Liberal Democrat Siobhan Benita has seen her numbers halved and now sits on four per cent.
This indicates that Khan has extended his lead by taking votes away from the Liberal Democrat challenger.
Khan started his campaign in January by saying that the election was a “two horse race” between himself and Bailey, and that Liberal Democrat supporters should “lend him their vote”.
Professor Philip Cowley, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London said: “Khan manages to attract 84 per cent of those who would support Labour in a general election but also almost half of Westminster Liberal Democrat voters (47 per cent), whereas Bailey attracts the support of 76 per cent of Conservative Westminster voters and almost no support from elsewhere.
“There must now be a real risk that Siobhan Benita will poll the same or worse as a representative of a major political party as she did when she stood as an independent candidate in 2012.”