Greens pick Jenny to challenge Boris and Ken

Saturday 19 March

Greens pick Jenny to challenge Boris and Ken

By Darryl Chamberlain 5:11 PM

London’s Green Party members have chosen Assembly member Jenny Jones as their candidate for next year’s mayoral election.

Jones, whose tetchy exchanges with Boris Johnson have become a feature of his mayoralty, beat challengers Shahrar Ali and Farid Bakht to the position.

While their chances of victory are remote, Green voters can expect to be wooed by Ken Livingstone in a tight mayoral fight where every voter gets two choices.

In 2008, Green candidate Sian Berry ran on a Sian 1, Ken 2 platform, with the Labour candidate advising his voters to give her their second choices. Berry picked up 3.1% of first choice votes, but 13.5% of second choice votes.

Another tie-up is a possibility this time around – Jones, who was Livingstone’s deputy for his final year as an independent mayor, praised him as a ‘visionary leader’ in an interview last year.

Jones and fellow Assembly member Darren Johnson are also hoping to get Green members’ backing for the assembly election. The party’s list of 10 candidates will be unveiled in the next few days.

Nationally, Greens are buoyant after Caroline Lucas became their first MP last year. But in London, members are still feeling bruised after losing 10 of their 12 seats in last May’s council elections.

They will be expecting a strong performance in the mayoral poll to lift their spirits, as well as hanging on to their two Assembly seats.

So it’s Boris versus Ken versus Jenny – with sometime MP and TV personality Citizen Lembit chomping at the bit to be named the Lib Dems’ candidate later this year.

Green Party mayoral selection result: Jenny Jones 458 votes, Shahrar Ali 133, Farid Bakht 90.