YouGov have published their latest polling on the London Mayoral race, YouGov say

What’s remarkable is just how evenly matched [Khan and Goldsmith] are, right down to the different aspects of their personality. Likeable? Its 41%/41%.  Good in a crisis? 26%/27%. Up to the job of Mayor? 38%/39%.

There’s only one area where you start to see a major difference – whether the two men are ‘in touch with ordinary people’. 41% think Mr Khan is, compared to only 18% for Zac Goldsmith. His multi-millionaire status is one weak point for the Tory, and you can expect his rival to make a lot of noise about it.

I think it would be a mistake for Khan to make much of Zac’s perceived out of touchness, because during the last parliament and in the election campaign itself Ed Miliband and Labour were consistently seen as more in touch with the voters than David Cameron and the Tories, the polling also showed the Tories were seen as “appealing to one section of society rather than the whole country.”

But despite all of that the Tories still won a majority, so these perceptions aren’t quite the disadvantage they might initially appear to be if you have other positive qualities. Khan should focus on policies not personalities.

This is going to be a fascinating election because London was one of the rare highlights for Labour at the general election where they led the Tories by 9% (up from 2% in 2010) but you get the feeling if Zac Goldsmith is polling near identically on most of the polling questions in a ‘Labour city’ then this race is going to be a lot closer than May’s election results suggest despite Goldsmith lacking the pizazz of Boris Johnson.

TSE