Sadiq Khan is leading the London mayoral race by five points, according to a new opinion poll.
Labour’s candidate is beating Tory rival Zac Goldsmith by 31 per cent to 26 per cent, found pollsters Opinium.
According to the Evening Standard, Mr Khan is getting twice as many second preference votes from backers of smaller parties, putting him on course to win the run-off by a 10-point margin of 55-45.
But in the big outer London “doughnut”, the two rivals are running neck-and-neck, which suggests a high turnout in the suburbs could slash Mr Khan’s lead.
And with a quarter of Londoners saying they have yet to make up their minds, the May 5 contest is still wide open.
None of the smaller party candidates came close to the big two, gaining about two per cent each.
Ukip’s Peter Whittle was marginally ahead of the Green Party’s Sian Berry and Liberal Democrat Caroline Pidgeon, while Respect Party candidate George Galloway trails the pack with less than one per cent.
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According to a YouGov poll last year, nearly a third (31 per cent) of Londoners would be uncomfortable if the next London Mayor was Muslim. The company, which surveyed 1,153 adults for LBC, found that Londoners were more uneasy about the idea of Muslim mayor than they were about one who was female (only 4 per cent expressed discomfort), gay (16 per cent), or from an ethnic minority (13 per cent).
