London Election Odds: Ken and Boris neck and neck in Mayoral contest

/ Mike Robb / 06 March 2008 / Leave a Comment

Betfair has best odds on Boris after he flirts with being favourite in Mayoral Race. What lies ahead? Betfair's Mike Robb takes a look

Boris Johnson's chances of winning the race to be London Mayor might have improved but he's still only evens favourite with Ken Livingstone on Betfair despite the resignation on Tuesday of Ken's race relations adviser, Lee Jasper.

The real movement on the Betfair market came over the weekend when the scandal surrounding Jasper caused Boris backers to stage a something of a charge, knocking odds on Johnson down to 4-5 on Saturday.

Clearly the Betfair market is ahead of the game once again. Pressure was mounting on Jasper to resign, and that must have been the cause of the price on Boris shortening over the weekend. But Betfair customers now think it's too close to call and as usual are offering better value on a Boris win than our competitors.

How short Boris "the clown" Johnson's price will go is anyone's guess, but no matter what magnitude the plethora of scandals coming out of the incumbent Mayor's office you would have to think this race will stay at or around evens for some time. While Boris may be in with a good chance of winning, he is in many ways a polarising figure and one many Londoners just cannot take seriously, no matter what his policies.

Saying that, there can be no doubting that Red Ken (and his office generally) seem to be doing everything they can to make life easy for the Conservative MP. Boris' success to date, it must be said, has largely had very little to do with what he himself has done or said. With two months still to go until the election the business end of the campaign is still to come. Watch this space.

Click here for the Betfair Politics Zone