Question about the UK local elections this may

[Ken Burch]

In the races(such as the mayoral contests in London and other large cities)in which the Supplementary Vote used to elect the mayor, what effect will the coalition government agreement between the Tories and the Liberal Democrats come in to play?

Will the LibDem candidates(who will mostly be finishing in third place)be obligated to call for their supporters to give their second-preference votes to the Tory candidate(such as Boris Johnson)?

And if this were the case, would it mean that, to defeat Boris or any other Tory mayoral candidate anywhere else, the Labour candidate would have to win an outright majority of first-preference votes?

[Anarcho-Socialist]

1. I doubt it

I think the coalition agreement just covers Westminster and not other places such as Holyrood, Cardiff and London.

[T_i_B]

2. There's also the matter....

....of how unpopular the Tories remain in the big cities. Even though the Lib Dems have become something of a proxy Tory party in places like Sheffield they are not going to gain any additional votes from being wedded to the Tories then they already have to be honest.

Regarding any referendums on elected mayors, I think the example of Doncaster, f**ked up as local politics is there will be more instructive. If only as a scare story for those who oppose the idea of local Mayors.

[LeftishBrit]

3. No

There may be some councils where LibDems and Tories may choose to go into coalition; but the Clegg-Cameron agreement does not affect local government, and many councillors of both parties probably dislike the agreement. For example, locally to me, it is obvious that the Tory leader of Oxfordshire County Council absolutely hates the LibDems, who generally return the compliment.(Not that a coalition would be likely anyway, given the Tories' solid majority here.)

Most council elections are based on FPTP, but you are correct that Supplementary Vote is generally used for directly elected mayors, and certainly for the Mayor of London. However, the national coalition agreement does not apply to London. Nor does it apply, for example, to the devolved assemblies of Scotland and Wales, which also use more proportional systems.

[fedsron2us]

4. To be honest I cant see it having any effect

Even if the Westminster politicians were to call for Lib Dem voters to back Johnson there is no guarantee it would make much difference to voting intentions. I suspect the London Mayoral election is going to be far more about the personalities of the leading candidates than their respective parties although Johnson is in the weaker position on the latter score as he will take a hit because public sentiment is now clearly shifting against the government on issues such as the NHS and compulsory workfare.

Just for the record I can't stand either Johnson or Livingstone both of whom are individuals who put their self promotion above their parties. I am also not a fan of mayors running cities.