Oona King joins list of mayoral hopefuls taking on Boris Johnson in 2012

In the running: Oona King’s fate will be decided at the Labour Party conference
12 April 2012

Former Labour MP Oona King is to stand against Ken Livingstone as a Labour candidate for Mayor of London.

Ms King, 42, who was ousted by George Galloway from her east London seat in 2005, will throw her hat in the ring this week.

Her return to frontline politics puts her on course to fight Boris Johnson for the job in 2012.

The contest — like the Labour leadership — will be decided at the party conference in the autumn. Ms King, at this stage the only woman contender, would first have to beat Mr Livingstone who is currently the front-runner.

She could also face former home secretary Alan Johnson who has emerged as a possible challenger. The names of Sir Alan Sugar and MPs David Lammy and Jon Cruddas have also been touted. Her Labour opponents are likely to focus on her record as an MP, in particular her support for the war in Iraq.

The party fired the starting gun for its selection process after its National Executive Committee voted to have a candidate installed before the end of the year. Labour hopes that ousting Mr Johnson — who has yet to commit to running for a second term — would give the party a springboard for the next general election.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in