New poll sees Ken close gap on Boris

There was relief in the Ken Livingstone camp last night when word came through that the Guardian was running a poll showing that the Tory contender for Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, was not nearly as far ahead in the race as had been predicted. The ICM survey, published this morning, gives Johnson a two-point lead over the incumbent - 51 per cent to 49 per cent.

The projection includes the allocation of second-preference votes under London's alternative voting system.

It was the first full-scale national newspaper survey conducted in the capital and the result differs radically from that of an online poll by YouGov published earlier this week which gave Johnson a 10-point lead and had the Labour team in a cold sweat.

"There's still plenty of time for Ken to pull back the lead - and for Boris to make a gaffe, if his minders let him out," a Livingstone insider told The First Post, alluding to reports this week that Johnson's campaign manager Lynton Crosby is keeping his man on a tight leash.

One mistake Boris won't be making is to let the far-right British National Party anywhere near him. The BNP urged supporters on Wednesday to give their second-preference votes to "the Tory clown, Johnson" because, compared with Livingstone, he was the lesser of two evils.

Boris was quick to react: "I utterly and unreservedly condemn the BNP and have no desire whatsoever to receive a single second-preference vote from a BNP supporter," he said. The election is on May 1.