Many Londoners think they could do just as well as the past three mayors of the city
The London Mayoral election ballot currently stands at 18 candidates, many of whom are running as independents, but all of whom think they can do the best job as mayor of London. But do regular Londoners think they could do well in the city’s top job?
The latest YouGov London Omnibus reveals that at least half of Londoners think they could do just as well or better at the role than the three mayors London has had so far.
A third (36%) of Londoners think they could do better as mayor than incumbent Sadiq Khan and a further 23% think they could do just as well. Only one in five (18%) think they would be worse in the job than Khan.
In 2019 YouGov asked Britons whether they think they would be a good Prime Minister and 33% said they thought they could do a better job than Boris Johnson. When it comes to his time as mayor of London, 41% of those in the capital think they could have done a better job and an additional fifth (20%) say they would have been no better or worse than the only Tory mayor to date. As with Sadiq Khan, 18% think they personally would have made a worse mayor.
For Ken Livingstone, the first person to serve as mayor of London following the position’s creation in 2000, 32% of Londoners think they could have done a better job, and 20% think they would have been his equal. However, significantly more of those in capital are unsure (33%) of how they might compare to Livingstone compared to the two more recent mayors (20-22%).
Along political lines, a significant proportion of each mayor’s own party think they could out perform them. For Sadiq Khan, 36% of London Labour voters think they could out perform him, while 32% of Conservatives in the capital claim they could best Boris Johnson as mayor.
For Ken Livingstone, who served his first term as an independent and his second as part of the Labour party, 31% of Labour voting Londoners think they could do better than he did.
See full results here
