Paddick and Johnson slam rivals' green alliance

2:00pm Thursday 20th March 2008

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Mayoral candidates Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick have both hit back at the green alliance put forward by mayor Ken Livingstone and Green Party candidate Sian Berry.

Ms Berry called on her supporters this week to give their second preference votes to mr Livingstone as she and the mayor launched five joint "green" pledges.

Mr Livingstone said he will also give his second vote to Ms Berry.

Conservative rival Boris Johnson, who Livingstone and Berry claimed could not be trusted with London's environment, branded the call "arrogant" and Livingstone "out of touch" with Londoners.

"Londoners will make their own minds up based on the policies put forward by all candidates," he said.

Mr Johnson said he would be shortly be launching his environment manifesto, maintaining that it would include a number of "fresh and innovative ideas" for making the capital cleaner and greener.

advertisement"When will Ken Livingstone finally publish some policies? We can only assume that he has run out of ideas and will continue to borrow mine," he added.

LibDem candidate Brian Paddick defended his party's record on the environment.

He said: "Anybody can exploit green issues for political purposes but the independent assessments of solutions to tackling climate change show the Liberal Democrats are the only party to have proposals that work."