London's maverick mayor gets posh rival

LONDON, Sep 10 (Reuters) An election next year for the mayor of London is shaping up to be an unusually brutal battle that exposes one of the country's deepest social divisions: class.

The two candidates likely to face off in the vote -- still eight months away -- are among the most colourful and distinct in British politics, and often called simply Ken and Boris.

A contest between Labour Party incumbent Ken Livingstone and Conservative politician Boris Johnson would show the left-right divide in British politics is alive as ever, and may leave roughly half the city heartily loathing the winner.

London-born Livingstone went to a state school and made his mark as mayor curbing traffic, by charging cars to drive into the centre of the capital; he has been maligned for dalliances with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

His likely opponent Johnson -- front-runner for the Conservative mayoral nomination -- is an Old Etonian member of parliament for Henley, a well-heeled town near London that hosts a royal rowing regatta.

With his trademark mop of blonde hair, Johnson, also a newspaper columnist, is renowned as an inveterate joker not shy of the occasional politically incorrect howler.

A national election pitting Prime Minister Gordon Brown against opposition Conservative Party leader David Cameron, which could be held at the same time, would by comparison pale in interest.

''Mayor elections attract people who are charismatic and have very strong views and have said things that they might regret.

Both Ken and Boris have got track records of that,'' said Dermot Finch, director of the Institute for Public Policy Research's Centre for Cities.

A small sample of Londoners in a YouGov poll last month put support for Johnson at 46 per cent, ahead of the sitting mayor at 40 per cent.

UNDIPLOMATIC AND QUOTABLE Livingstone, labelled the ''most odious man in Britain'' by the Sun newspaper when he ran the London city council in the 1980s, has had his share of undiplomatic outbursts. He called the US ambassador a ''chiselling little crook'' last year after the embassy refused to pay congestion charge bills.

''I would've been quite happy to crush the car with the American ambassador in it, quite frankly,'' said Livingstone, who has also likened a persistent local Jewish reporter to a ''concentration camp guard''.

A Livingstone-friendly think-tank recently sifted through Johnson's many writings to argue the former Conservative shadow minister for higher education concealed extreme right-wing views behind a a buffoonish persona.

Among the choice quotes highlighted by the think-tank, Compass, was Johnson's description of the crowds that would greet former Prime Minister Tony Blair if he were to visit Democratic Republic of Congo.

''No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird,'' Johnson wrote in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

With the candidates' larger-than-life personalities taking centre stage, it would be easy to forget that much is at stake.

Greater London has 5.3 million eligible voters, meaning more people can cast ballots for the mayor than for any elected figure in Europe other than the presidents of France and Portugal, according to the city's electoral office.

The mayor's core responsibilities -- public transport and urban development -- take on special importance in a city that contributes about 20 per cent of British economic output and boasts more new share offerings than anywhere else in the world.

''This is not some sleepy backwater in rural Germany,'' said Justin Fisher at London's Brunel University. ''The powers of the London mayor are growing. And a number have become very high profile.'' That is, in large part, down to Livingstone. The capital had made do without a city government since the late 1980s, and he had to face down sceptics about the usefulness of the mayoral role when it was introduced in a 2000 election that he won.

Like him or not, many Londoners now see the institution of mayor as key to promoting the city's interests, illustrated by Livingstone's championing of London's bid for the 2012 Olympics.

LEFT VS RIGHT Beyond their outspoken personalities, an intriguing aspect of a Ken-Boris contest would be their differing policy visions.

They could revive Britain's left-right divide, popularly believed to have collapsed under former Prime Minister Tony Blair, a committed centrist. On the national stage, Brown and Cameron still seem locked in a battle for the centre ground.

There would be no mushy middle in London's mayoral race.

Livingstone was nicknamed ''Red Ken'' for his policies as leader of the London city council, including his categorical opposition to nuclear weapons. The moniker is now rarely heard, as he has softened -- for example, he now courts business.

But he still shows flashes of radicalism.

He put the finishing touches last month on a deal with Hugo Chavez for discounts on Venezuelan oil that will translate into cheaper bus fares for Londoners in need.

And his 2003 introduction of the congestion charge was designed to encourage people to opt for public transport.

''What Livingstone has done is promote collective ideals in terms of transport over private, individual liberty,'' Fisher said.

That gives Johnson, a product of Oxford University as well as exclusive private school Eton, an angle for attack.

When he launched his campaign last week, he pledged to retain congestion charging but make it more flexible: analysts say he may yet tap simmering anger by taking a stronger stand against it.

And he savaged the partnership with Chavez.

''You won't catch me doing deals with left-wing dictators so that Venezuelan slum children are effectively subsidising Transport for London,'' Johnson said.

Critics still wonder whether Johnson can present a serious enough face to unseat Livingstone. But the mayor himself has said he views Johnson as his most credible challenger yet.

That is warranted, says Finch at the Centre for Cities.

''It would be risky for people to just write off Johnson because he's a maverick, because that's exactly what Livingstone was eight years ago and he won,'' he said.

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