Housing and Crime Top of Londoners' Concerns
Samuel Kasumu, a prospective Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, has had a piece of London polling commissioned from Opinium that gives some insight into the capital's current concerns. In a press release, Kasumu emphasises the strategic significance of London's most salient issues: he highlights housing. Crime is another issue the poll suggests Londoners value disproportionately.
On the other side of the coin, energy prices and immigration are of less concern to London voters. This is not particularly surprising, London has acute problems with housing and crime. Moreover, as a city with strong Labour support, the fact immigration is a lower priority resonates with national polling.
The importance of housing does lend credence to Samuel Kasumu's strategy of a focus on the issue. It also indicates scope for him to make ground on crime, as this is also found to be an issue on which Labour leads the Conservatives by a relatively smaller margin.
Opinium's research contains results for London's voter intention, separated between Central and Outer London voters. Central London vote shares are depicted in a lighter shade and on the left.
The Conservatives lost out significantly in 2019 in Central London, and especially so in Outer London. Interestingly, Labour's vote share has declined in Central, despite the favourable national picture. Perhaps emblematic of the party's pitch to the voters it lost in 2019. The Liberal Democrats come off particularly well in Central London while there is a decent swing to the Greens across the city. Of course, this is just a subsample of a single poll.
The Poll also finds widespread dissatisfaction across almost every area of policy. It will be interesting to see the extent to which this is a result of the national policy context, and whether it's tied to the Conservatives. This is especially true of crime and housing, both of which London voters feels are "getting worse" and are at least somewhat within the competencies of City Hall. Although London is still, by an overwhelming margin, a Labour stronghold - could the city's discontent provide an in-road into their lead?
