- Friday, May 17, 2024
The Savanta survey for the Centre for London put the Labour mayor on 42 per cent and the Tory candidate at 32 per cent. Last week, a Savanta poll showed the gap at 13 points.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE race to pick the new mayor of London intensified 48 hours before the election on May 2 with a poll showing incumbent Sadiq Khan taking a lean lead over Susan Hall. In fact, Khan’s lead over his Conservative opponent was at its narrowest since their campaigns began.
According to The Standard, the Savanta survey for the Centre for London put the Labour mayor on 42 per cent and the Tory candidate at 32 per cent. Last week, a Savanta poll showed the gap at 13 points.
Hall is the leader of the Conservative Party in the London Assembly.
Savanta’s political research director Chris Hopkins said the final poll before the capital chose its next mayor showed that the race has become tighter in the last few days ahead of the polling.
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“Of course there remains a high level of uncertainty around this election, with changes to the electoral system and voter ID laws making cast-iron predictions challenging, but the findings still suggest a closer race than many are bargaining for,” he was quoted as saying by The Standard.
Hopkins also said that while Khan is predicted to register a comfortable victory over Hall, their research has suggested throughout that the Pakistani-origin incumbent mayor has serious challenges.
“Londoners seem divided on his time in office so far – and a different, more popular opponent could have made a difference,” he added.
Khan has been serving as the mayor since 2016.
The survey showed Liberal Democrat Rob Blackie at 10 per cent; Green Party’s Zoe Garbett at eight per cent and Reform UK candidate Howard Cox on three per cent.
Khan was reportedly ahead of Hall in Inner London by 19 points (45 per cent to 26 per cent) and in Outer London by five points (41 per cent to 36 per cent).
He was also leading among the capital’s women by 17 points (45 per cent to 28 per cent) and among men by three per cent (40 per cent to 37 per cent), The Standard report added.
A poll by YouGov on Tuesday (30), which used a different methodology, however, showed Khan taking a 22-point lead over Hall.
Khan was leading by 24 to 25 points ahead by several polls at the beginning of the mayoral race.
