Johnson targets women's vote in campaign to stay in office

23 Apr, 2012

With just over a week to go until the elections for mayor of London on 3 May the incumbent, Boris Johnson, is promising to create 20,000 part-time jobs to help mothers get back to work if he is re-elected.

About 7,500 of these he says would be in the city administration, while the rest he hopes would be in the private sector. According to a recent report London has the lowest level of employment among women in the country.

Johnson, the Conservative party candidate, has been in the job since 2008. He is running against his old rival, the Labour candidate Ken Livingstone, who was mayor of London from 2000-2008. The third candidate is the Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick whose votes may be decisive if neither Johnson nor Livingstone gets an outright majority on 3 May.

Tensions between Johnson and Livingstone are high and Johnson