The polls are showing the two leading contenders for London mayor – Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson – running neck and neck. Predictably, sections of the rightwing media have started reaching for the proverbial dog whistle; playing politics with race and religion and appealing to a diminishing band of bigoted voters who respond to the politics of fear. They are painting a picture of the East End which doesn’t exist – but which aims to frighten the voters in suburbia down to the polling stations on 3 May.
Tower Hamlets councillor Rabina Khan replies to the Evening Standard‘s witch-hunt of the borough’s mayor Lutfur Rahman as part of a campaign to smear Ken Livingstone.