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October 7, 2008 1:01:38 PM CDT

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Blair Weighs In on London's Neck-and-Neck Mayoral Race

Posted Apr 24, 08 7:54 AM CDT in World 

(Newser) – With one week to go, the two main candidates in the race for mayor of London—maverick Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone and clownish Tory Boris Johnson—remain neck-and-neck. As the Labour Party realizes that it could lose the most important elected office in Britain, the Guardian reveals that Livingstone is receiving help from his former sworn enemies: Tony Blair and his spin doctor, Alistair Campbell.

The far-left Livingstone was booted from Labour and ran as an independent against the party's mayoral candidate in 2000, winning in a landslide. Now Blair, who once warned Livingstone would be "a disaster," is advising the mayor on how to win a third term. Livingstone has also been speaking daily to Gordon Brown, another former enemy; the PM is anxious about losing London in the first major election of his premiership.

Sources Guardian (UK), AFP

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Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, right, listens to the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone as they travel on a hybrid double-decker bus on their way to City Hall, London, Monday, Oct. 1, 2007.   (AP Photo/Sang Tan, Pool)
Conservative candidate for the Mayor of London Boris Johnson listens to a question at a public meeting held by the leading Gay charity Stonewall in London.   (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Labour Mayor of London Ken Livingstone holds his hands to his face during a public meeting with other candidates, held by the leading Gay charity Stonewall in London.   (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister and current Mideast envoy for the quartet, meets with a religious studies group-class during a visit to a City Academy school, in north London, Thursday April...   (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, pool)
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London  • Gordon Brown  • Tony Blair  • Labour Party  • Ken Livingstone  • Boris Johnson  • London mayoral election  • Alistair Campbell


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