A Labour MP has criticised Ken Livingstone's mayoral election campaign as "tired out" and lacking any excitement.
Austin Mitchell MP, the Labour member for Great Grimsby, tweeted on Tuesday morning: "Come on Ken. We need you to win but [we] get tired of self-justification, tax fiddlers and racism. No life. No. fun. No drive."
HuffPost wondered if the MP's account had been hacked, but it turns out Mitchell stands by the tweet, telling us: "There's no excitement, is there? His policies are correct but just he seems tired out. There's no longer the hint of danger that used to surround him."
"We're desperate that Ken should be elected because we've suffered a reverse in Bradford, we have a new leader and he's still finding his feet. We need a win, we need a big win, but both parties are on tenterhooks and not conveying any sense of excitement to the electorate.
@AVMitchell2010
Austin Mitchell's tweet echoes the motto used in one of Ken's election broadcasts last week - where Londoners all say "Come on, Ken". Livingstone was seen to cry when the video was shown at a campaign launch last week, where HuffPost noted that the Labour candidate looked, frankly, exhausted.
Mitchell added: "I'm not sure what Londoners are thinking, I'm sure they find it incomprehensible. It's just two men throwing insults at each other and a peripheral chorus chanting irrelevancies."
Defending himself against the charge on Tuesday afternoon, Livingstone said Mitchell had not seen how much effort he was putting in on the campaign trail.
"I've lost a stone during this campaign, and I went for my annual medical last week and my doctor almost had an orgasm because I'm so fit," he said.
Boris Johson has a six point lead over Ken Livingstone in the latest poll, published on Monday. The polls also suggest that while Ken Livingstone is on course to lose the London Mayoral election, Labour as a party could do well in the London Assembly - prompting speculation that some Labour voters are unwilling to vote for Livingstone.
The poll was conducted by YouGov, who talk of a "Boris Bonus" - the phenomenon where a candidate outperforms their own party, which seems to be happening with the Tories in London.
YouGov point out that this is exactly the feat Ken Livingstone managed to pull off in the London Mayoral election of 2004 - but now Ken is being outperformed by his own party.
Meanwhile Labour nationally lead the Tories by nine points in an opinion poll published on Tuesday.
This week sees two Mayoral Hustings take place on Wednesday on Thursday. The second of these is on Sky News and will be one of the more high-profile hustings.
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The Huffington Post UK | By Chris Wimpress & Asa Bennett Posted: 17/04/2012 11:40 Updated: 17/04/2012 14:41