London mayor: new poll boosts Jowell but Labour race remains opaque

The latest YouGov survey suggests former minister is her party's best bet for City Hall, but is the Corbyn factor hurting her chances?

A new YouGov poll for LBC Radio makes happy reading for Tessa Jowell, long regarded as the favourite to become Labour's candidate to run for London mayor next May. When all the "don't knows" and "none of these" are stripped out of the sample of 1153 London adults, 42% think she would be the best Labour candidate of the six people in the running, exactly double the proportion who favour second-placed Sadiq Khan. Diane Abbott comes in third with 16% followed by David Lammy with 12% and Christian Wolmar and Gareth Thomas, each with 4%.

In this respect, Jowell has improved her standing by 4% since the last YouGov poll of this type, which was conducted at the end June and onset of July. Khan's rating has risen by 3% in the same period. The scores of Abbott, Thomas and Wolmar have stayed the same, while Lammy's has fallen by 6%.