A trade union sponsored poll out this morning from Ipsos-MORI on the London Mayoralty put Ken Livingstone in the lead and add further to the polling confusion over the race.

Amongst first choices the split amongst those “certain to vote” is JOHNSON 40%: LIVINGSTONE 41%: PADDICK 10% 14%. This is very similar to a survey by the pollster in February which had been commissioned by the Labour party.

If you include all those naming a choice Ken had an 8% lead. This is not the figure that the firm, which lone amongst the national pollsters does not seek past vote or party ID weight, uses as its headline figure.

The poll involving a telephone sample of 1000 was carried out from April 1st – 7th and was for the Unison public service workers union.

UPDATE – Overnight after the Newsnight debate I closed almost all my Boris positions down on IG, SI, Spreadfair and Betfair – at a profit. I did not find Boris convincing whereas I thought that Ken did well.

Latest mayoral betting is here.

Mike Smithson