Why I’m voting Boris as my second preference: Lawrence Webb

This is the first of a short series this week where we look at the way people are voting SECOND preference in the coming Mayoral election. Lawrence Webb, UKIP’s Mayoral candidate, (pictured) explains why he’s voting for Boris Johnson, after UKIP.

I believe that if the voting system were better explained the contest for Mayor would be far more exciting and would no longer be the “two horse race” that it is often described as.

We each have two votes for Mayor, the First and Second Preference, each of these has an equal weight i.e. they each count as a single vote. However both of them are not necessarily counted depending on whether or not your First Preference candidate was eliminated after the first round.

If your First Preference candidate is still in contention then your Second Preference Vote IS NOT COUNTED.

UKIP believes that your first vote is a truly a free vote to give to whichever candidate your heart desires, particularly if it is not one of the top two, because then if they do not make it to the next round then your second vote WILL BE COUNTED.

There are many people who agree with UKIP and would like to see us do well but fear that by voting for us they will let “Ken” in. We are urging those supporters to thus give their second vote to Boris to prevent Ken getting back in because we believe that he would be a disaster for London.

Any London Mayor should represent all Londoners equally and not pander to one particular group at the expense of others. London has one of the most diverse populations of any city in the world and includes Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims and even a good many Atheists. In trying to emulate George Galloway he is trying to pander to the Muslim vote, offering to make London a beacon of Islam, this simply smacks in the face of what the Mayor should be.

In addition to that Ken’s promise to cut fares is unrealistic and unsustainable. He is robbing from Peter to pay Paul. When the money runs out he will simply have to put fares up again or increase the GLA precept with the effect that London Council Tax payers will then be forced to subsidise the more than a million commuters from outside the capital that would be benefiting from the lower fares.

It is important to remember that the greatest cause of recent fare rises was to cover the cost of the infrastructure upgrades which were conditional on London winning the Olympic bid, a figure in excess of £17bn.

Whilst most of the focus is on the Mayoral election Conservative voters fail to realise that if they vote for the Conservatives on the London-wide Assembly Member ballot paper (the Orange one) they are more likely to get Greens elected to the London Assembly. So, just as we are urging our supporters to give Boris their second preference vote we are urging Tory Party supporters to give us their vote on the orange ballot paper for the London-wide Assembly Member.