August is almost upon us, so why not? Prospect dust off their mayoral candidature crystal ball and float the prospect (npi) of historian Tristram Hunt joining Siralan Sugar, Jon Cruddas, Oona King and the drummer from Blur as the Anyone But Ken choices for Labour in 2012. At first, it’s a plausible case — Hunt (once dubbed “the Jamie Oliver of history”) a noted enthusiast of elected mayors (his Building Jerusalem effortlessly morphs from Victoriana to government white paper) is well-connected among the party’s Primrose Hill set (he even helped Derek Draper write a book) and, most crucially, believes Ken can be seen off from becoming Labour’s standard-bearer by default. But, as the piece (in full, below) continues, his attacks on the former mayor are more likely to be for the benefit of another:
Ever since he wrote a piece in the Guardian saying Labour should send Ken Livingstone off “to tend his garden and feed his newts,” elegant young historian Tristram Hunt has been discussed as a possible Labour candidate for the London mayoralty in 2012. And if a bit of posh is what is now required to seize the testicle from Boris, who better? Hunt went to a good public school, writes nicely and is the perfect candidate for the outer “doughnut” of upmarket London boroughs that voted for Boris. And his aunt is Virginia Bottomley—the Margot Leadbetter of British politics. But when confronted, Hunt denies that he has any intention of standing. His attack on King Newt wasn’t motivated by personal ambition—he was just acting as an attack dog for someone else. And that person? Apparently none other than David Lammy MP, under-secretary for skills and Tottenham’s answer to Barack Obama—with whom he claims to be friendly. Watch out Boris: you read it here first.
In the end, Labour are probably more likely to select the real Jamie Oliver (he does have history in going up against Boris.) But three years and a bit ahead of the actual election, there are others in Labour expending energy over the prospect of Ken standing again, such as the Fabians’ Sunder Katwala. Katwala raises an open primary as one way to thwart open up a Livingstone candidacy to wider electoral support, as does, erm, David Lammy. Pukka indeed.
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