In all the discussions over next year’s London Mayoral election hardly anybody is noting that things are very different because of changes Johnson made to the mayoral voting system when he was PM.

The old system effectively gave voters two choices with their second preference coming into effect if their first choice did not make the top two on the first count. Now thanks to the Johnson changes all mayoral and similar elections will be decided by first past the post.

It used to be in London that the LAB contender was helped enormously by second preference votes. They don’t exist anymore and as we saw in some mayoral elections last May this provides a big boost to Tory candidates. Johnson knew what he was doing.

In Bedford where I vote, last May saw a Tory being elected for the first time just squeezing it and being top of the poll with less than a third of the votes.

The big problem for those opposed to the Tories is that they generally have a choice of anti-Tory options which under first past the post helps the blue team.

I’ve just had a bet at 7/1 on Susan Hall

Mike Smithson